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Commander Rosendahl, who was head commander of the ship’s arrival, was an anxious man the day of his ship’s arrival. He frequently paced his spartan office that day hoping to see his airship safely moored to the mast and passengers disembarked unharmed. However, the weather had been hideous all day. Even a passenger by the name of Margaret Mather noted, “ It’s very windy, and the weather seems to be getting worse.” ( Archbold,Rick Hindenburg 177) At 5:00 p.m. Rosendahl gave the order for Zero Hour to be sounded. It was a series of loud blasts on the station that summoned the 231 crew members who comprised the landing crew to get ready for the final approach. Rosendahl hoped he had guessed correctly in summoning the landing crew because they earned a dollar an hour for their services and he didn’t want them to sit around long because the cost could get expensive. Finally, at 7:10 Rosendahl radioed to the Hindenburg, “Conditions definitely improved recommend earliest possible landing.” (Archbold, 178) Not too long after the message and behind schedule voices shouted, “There she is!” (Archbold, 178) Furthermore, the men in the tail fin valved gas to lower altitude so the landing would be on a perfectly even keel. A young radio announcer with the station WLS Chicago was describing the scene for a later broadcast for folks back home and quoted, “Here it comes, ladies and gentlemen, and what a sight it is, just a marvelous sight”,(Mooney, Michael The Hindenburg 202) for he did not have any From the arrival, the next focal point is the tragic explosions and the escape of the passengers aboard the Hindenburg airship. The first explosion occurred approximately four minutes after the first bow rope had dropped to the field. Rosendahl remembered this moment and exclaimed, “It seemed as if the whole world was holding its breath. One heard no command, no call, no cry.” (Archbold, 181) A man by the name of Helmut Lau, was walking on a catwalk keeping an eye on the mooring cable when he heard a muffled detonation. He thought the combustion originated near the center of the cell by a walkway, but everything happened so fast he couldn’t be sure. Another cell-men by the name of Hans Freund was closest to the faint explosion as it occurred, yet his back was turned and had no clue where the fire As the Hindenburg, which was inflated with hydrogen, was being engulfed with flames the head captain ,Max Pruss, was at the head of the ship with other captains and none of the officers yet understood what was happening. Seconds later however, Captain Sammt, who was leaning out a port window along with Pruss remarked, “ The ground crew retreated as the fire roared toward the bow as the tail began to fall. Through the flames figures were reported being seen dropped to the ground. As soon as the tail hit, the rest of the ship came crashing down. Mean and women, some with their clothes on fire, emerged from the flaming inferno. Then suddenly while passengers were fleeing, a second violent explosion occurred , hurling people off their feet. Two men in fact, Alfred Grozinger and navigator Kurt Bauer, clung to the bow windows outside of the ship and did not give in to the ships blaze even when flames were inches beside them and did not let go, until the lower part of the bow hit the landing field. Between the time of the first spark and the last escape from the burning wreck seemed like hours according to survivors and witnesses. The explosions were devastating from the witnesses point of view. Learning about the explosions and the struggle to survive after the crash, now brings us to the interesting fact about the inflation of hydrogen in the Hindenburg itself. By far, the fact that the Hindenburg was not initially supposed to be filled with the deadly and flammable gas hydrogen, is astounding. Dr. Hugo Eckner, the chairman of Zeppelin, had decided that it would be the wisest course to inflate the new ship with the nonflammable gas helium. However, there were two flaws in order to fill the ship with helium. First of all, the Zeppelin Company was in great need of money during this time of depression and large sums of money would be needed to fill the ship with helium. More over, since the United States wasn’t to fond of the Nazi’s acts , the U.S was not give their only natural deposits of helium to them because this would allow the Nazis to use the United States’ own power against them. Even after a meeting with President Roosevelt, the decision was made in the U.S. Congress not to give them the helium they needed. This made it impossible for the Zeppelin Company to obtain the helium for their new ship, and forced them to inflate the ship with the deadly gas hydrogen. The Hindenburg took 7 million cubic feet of gas and at the current price of helium the cost to inflate all the ships air cells with The Hindenburg was a huge gamble in a long line of gambles for the Zeppelin Company. Though the airship still holds the record as the largest aircraft to ever fly, the fact that it was one of the worst mishaps ever and we need to learn from it is of more importance and people need to understand that. The final count was 35 dead , including 13 passengers. Nearly two thirds of the 97 passengers on board survived, but the fact will be forever remembered, and the name Hindenburg will be only a reminder of human-wrought tragedy comparable only to the name Titanic. The night of the disaster Gill Robb Wilson, the landing supervisor at Lahurst put it best by saying, “ Those of us long in the air know what it is to reach out in salute to the embodiment of our hopes, and suddenly find our fingers filled with ashes.” (Botting, Bibliography: Bibliography - Archbold, Rick Hindenburg Published: 1994 Published in Toronto, Ontario -Botting, Douglas The Giant Airships Published:1980 Published in Canada -Mooney, Michael The Hindenburg Published:1972 Published in Cornwall, New York Word Count: 1101
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