Buzz
In 1910, Walter Wellman, an American journalist, aviator, and explorer, set out to achieve the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. On an October morning, he and a five-member crew launched the dirigible America from Atlantic City, New Jersey, soaring into the sky with Europe as their destination.
The America was equipped with two remarkable items: one of the earliest radios ever used on an aircraft and Kiddo, a stray cat adopted by a crew member from the hangar as a lucky charm.
Kiddo struggled to adapt to air travel. Within 20 minutes of takeoff, navigator F. Murray Simon recorded in his log, “Our cat is my main concern, darting around the airship like a frantic squirrel in a cage.”
Jack Irwin, the radio operator, stationed in the lifeboat beneath the ship’s cabin due to limited space, shouted up to Simon, complaining that the cat was causing chaos and driving him insane. He suggested they leave the cat behind before venturing too far.
Simon opposed the idea, insisting, “We must keep the cat at all costs; a ship can never be lucky without a cat on board.”
The crew gathered to discuss the issue and voted to remove the cat. They placed it in a canvas bag and attempted to lower it to journalists in a motorboat covering the flight. However, rough waters prevented the transfer, and the cat was brought back aboard.
After this incident, Simon observed that Kiddo seemed to understand “he could have been in a far worse situation than an airship” and began to behave better. Despite this, the rest of the crew remained unimpressed. Irwin was so frustrated with the cat that his first radio message to Atlantic City—possibly the first air-to-ground transmission in history—was, “Roy, come and take this damn cat!”
A little over a day into the journey, far from their destination, the crew faced more serious issues than Kiddo. The weather worsened, and the engines, clogged with sand from Atlantic City’s beach, began to fail. Spotting a mail ship below, the crew and Kiddo abandoned the America in the lifeboat, and the airship drifted away, never to be seen again.
Although the America failed to cross the Atlantic, it set records for both flight duration and distance traveled. The entire crew, including Kiddo, became celebrities upon their return. Kiddo was showcased at Gimbel’s in New York City, resting in a luxurious, pillow-filled cage. He soon retired from public life and spent his remaining years with Wellman’s daughter.
* There’s some debate about this, as some sources claim Canadian pilot J.D.A. McCurdy sent the first transmission a few months earlier.
