Airship Chief's Body is Found -- December 21, 2023

Washington Times, 28-December-1923

In 1918 the German Navy received a special long-distance Zeppelin, LZ-114, which they planned to use to bomb New York City. The war ended before the LZ-114 could carry out that mission. The Navy took LZ-114 as a part of their war reparations. A German crew delivered the Zeppelin to France, which renamed it as Dixmude. The French immediately let Dixmude sit for three years. When they tried to inflate it, they found that the gas cells had deteriorated. Rather than buy new ones from the Germans, France trained its own workmen. The cells took two years to create and proved to have many small leaks. 

France planned to send Dixmude on a flight from France to an oasis in the Sahara Desert. Dixmude sailed on 18-December-1923 and reached the oasis on the 19th. There were no landing facilities, so Dixmude dropped bag of mail from the crew and turned north. Strong headwinds forced Dixmude to change course. and sent its last radio message early in the morning of the 20th. The ship reported heavy weather. After that, nothing was heard from the ship. 

Girders and fuel tanks washed ashore that morning. The French government worked vigorously to cover up the loss of Dixmude. Fishermen found the commander's body on 26-December-1923. Only one other body was found. 

AIRSHIP CHIEFS BODY IS FOUND

Dixmude Believed in Mediterranean

HOPE FOR 50 PERSONS

WHO WERE ABOARD

IS ABANDONED

By HARRY FLORY,

International News Service

PARIS, Dec. 28. -- The tragic fate of the giant French dirigible Dixmude was revealed today when official announcement was made that it had been lost in the Mediterranean.

The body of the commander, Lieutenant-Commander Duplessis, was picked up near Sicily.

It is feared that all the fifty persons on board were drowned.

The Dixmude had been missing ten days.

French, Italian apd British destroyers are searching for the missing bodies.

Official announcement of the loss of the Dixmude was made by the ministry of marine.

The commander’s body was picked up by Italian fishermen.

News of the loss of the great airship followed a report that it had been sighted 250 kilometers south of Insalah, in the Saharan desert. Hope that the crew and passengers might be safe was turned into sorrow by news from Naples that the body of the commander had been found. This news made it certain that the Dixmude, helpless from lack of fuel and a disabled motor, had been forced down into the sea.

SET OUT TEN DAYS AGO.

The Dixmude had set out from the air base at Toulon ten days ago to fly over the Mediterranean to Algeria. It was charged that the commander failed to communicate with the air ministry before departure of the ship and failed to take the precaution of learning future weather conditions.

The last message from the Dixmude was a radiogram last Friday night inquiring about atmospheric conditions over northern Africa.

Papers Identify Body.

According to information from Naples, the body of Commander Duplessis was identified by papers in the pockets. His body was received on shore with military honors.

The body was found floating on the water off Sciacca on the Sicilian coast.

Vessels searched the vicinity for traces of the airship, but none was found.

Skeptical of Early Report.

Officials of the Ministry of Marine were skeptical of the report that the airship had been sighted over the Sahara desert as it was known she had not sufficient fuel to keep aloft until Wednesday -- the day upon which natives reported to the French garrison at Insalah that they had seen an airship in the sky, It is believed that the natives saw a French airplane, which was searching for the Dixmude and mistook it for the missing airship.

Hope that some of the fifty passengers on board may have escaped death has not yet been abandoned. It was pointed out that the Dixmude carried parachutes and that some of them may have at ...
(missing text)
... the elements over Tunis and the airship reported herself "drifting helplessly" with many of the crew sick and her boyish commander impotent to bring her to earth.

"It is almost Impossible to land an airship without the aid of 250 men," Commander Duroc explained, "In desperation, the commander might bring his ship to the ground and at the same time save the crew by letting out the gas, but this would be a hazardous undertaking."

Other officials of the ministry said they had given up hope that the Dixmude could be brought safely to earth but hoped for the best for her crew and passengers, who number 52 in all.

AIRSHIP RATIONS

ARE EXHAUSTED

Nothing definite has been heard from the Dixmude, which has been gone from her base at Cuers Pierrefeu, France, for more than eight days, since wireless messages from the airship were picked up Saturday.

The Dixmude's rations gave out four days ago; her fuel supply, consisting of 19 tons of gasoline, was exhausted last Saturday; caught in the grip of terrific Mediterranean storms, she drifted wraithlike in an aerial prison, unable to land or to make headway to her base.

When last seen the Dixmude was over the Gulf of Gabes, being blown to sea off the Tunis coast.

Since that time, however, the winds have changed and the last to make the Dixmude its plaything was driving the helpless dirigible inland.

Cavalry garrisons thruout (sic - JT) Tunis and Algiers were ordered out today by the French war department for a search.

The troops were ordered to pass the word along to the natives, who would spread it rapidly from mouth to mouth, because the Dixmude is regarded as a supernatural sky monster by the tribesmen of Northern Africa.

FAILS TO USE

PARACHUTE AID

The ministry of marine today reiterated an announcement that the Dixmude carried parachutes and expressed inability to comprehend why the ship's young commander, Commodore Du Pless De Grenadin, had not ordered some member of the crew to drop overboard with messages, if the dirigible actually hovered over or near towns, as reported.

Christmas eve brought reports that various stations in Tunis had seen the airship's searchlights in the night sky, but as these were sometimes reported pointing in one direction and again in another and were not otherwise identified as belonging to the Dixmude, the ministry of marine now doubts if it was the dirigible which was seen. Moreover, the positions and times reported do not check, when the wind direction is taken Inte account.

Technical advisers in the aeronautic department of the French navy declared it an impossibility for the Dixmude to remain aloft unless provisioned for a week. They believe the airship landed some days ago; if in the sea, with loss of all lives; if in the desert or among the rough hills of North Africa, perhaps with some lives saved.

MAY BE HIDING

BEHIND MOUNTAIN

Despair for the air liner's safety grew today as the time she had been away from her home base lengthened to 300 hours, The Dixmude carried food for approximately 260 hours, with emergency rations that would carry her crew thru another day or so, but her water supply must long since have been exhausted.

While cavalry rakes the plains and hills of southern Tunis today, squadrons of airplanes went aloft into the air that held Dixmude prisoner and searched far and wide for the missing giantess.

Commandant La Fargue, commanding in Tunis, expressed belief the Dixmude had sought shelter behind the Atlas mountains, in the Sahara desert, and was awaiting favorable winds to blow her back to France.

The Tunisian commander insisted the dirigible had not sent out distress signals, and pointed out that if she had collapsed In the desert, the news certainly would have arrived by natives.

This announcement that the Dixmude had not sent distress signals perplexed naval aviation experts, who pointed out the airship, being built of duralumin, was extremely light and might float for some days if it fell into the Mediterranean.