Photos taken in Nome, Alaska 1931

The following pictures were sent to the CharlesLindbergh.com Web site by Jim Davenport of Camp Verde, AZ.

Photos taken in China-October 1931

The Sirius was damaged while being hoisted by the British carrier Hermes

Flight to the Orient Overview

The survey flight to the Orient departed July 27, 1931, from Long Island, New York. Their itinerary through Canada included Ottawa, Moose Factory and Churchill on Hudson Bay, and Baker Lake in the Northwest Territories (Anne was the first white woman to set foot there). In Ottawa, her husband proudly proclaimed his wife was "crew" in response to a local aviator's statement that he wouldn't want his own wife as a passenger through the uncharted no man's land of the Canadian tundra.

After a 12-hour night flight north from Baker Lake, through a never darkening sky in the land of the midnight sun, they arrived on the fifth of August at Aklavik on the Mackenzie River delta. Their next stop was Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of Alaska, at the Arctic Ocean. It was isolated, bleak country, sparsely inhabited by Eskimos, the native people now known as Inuit, and small settlements of white missionaries and trappers who waited a full year between supply boats to replenish supplies.

They headed south to Nome in darkening skies, away from the Arctic sunlight. Low on fuel, with fog-shrouded mountains ahead, they landed near Shishmaref Inlet. Anne hurriedly reeled in the antenna after sending a frantic message to the waiting Nome natives, moments before the plane landed in shallow water.

After crossing the Bering Sea on August 14, they arrived in Siberia at Karaginski Island, Kamchatka, before flying on to Petropavlovsk. Even with language barriers among the Russians, Anne's warm nature established quick friendships and transcended cultural barriers. Her gentle demeanor endeared her to many of the people they encountered worldwide.

Their next stop was Ketoi Island, where Charles landed skillfully in a sea of fog, while Anne battled temporary fright through the blind descent. After fouled spark plugs prevented an engine start there, the plane drifted perilously close to the rocks when the anchor rope broke. They were rescued by a Japanese boat, the Shinshiru Maru, and towed to Buroton Bay.

On August 22, repairs completed, they flew on towards Tokyo, but battling fog again, landed near Kunashiri Island. After a brief stop at Nemuro, the Sirius landed at Tokyo on August 26. From Fukuoka, they flew across the Yellow Sea into Nanking, China, site of severe flooding of the Yangtzee River, now known as the Chang. Because the Sirius had the longest fuel range of any plane in the area, it was called into action to assess the vast flood damage.