The caption to this photo read “Transferring mail from an ocean liner to the Goodyear Blimp in Los Angeles Harbor” which left me wondering: Was the liner arriving into LA, in which case couldn’t the mail just taken off the ship? Or if the liner was leaving LA, how much mail could they have already accumulated? It seems to me that transferring something like mail from a little row boat to the Goodyear Blimp sounds awfully tricky with an all-too-real danger that the mail might end up in the Pacific.
** UPDATE ** – “20,000 Letters on Ship for Transfer to Blimp” – From the San Pedro News-Pilot, May 25, 1931″
Remarkable, leaves me speechless and in awe
I think the blimp is strafing the boat!!! Run, little boat! RUN!! (LOL)
Perhaps just a test in safer waters to see if they might be able to do this procedure further out to sea? IIRC, they did a similar game with a plane on an Atlantic liner to save time on that last leg. That could be critical for some things like film footage of current events for newsreel people. Life used to rush exposed film over New York Central fast trains to get the photography developed in time to print. You can always charge more for guaranteed time.
That’s a good guess, Al. I wouldn’t have thought of that.