NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2024 Aug 8, 14:05 -0700
Gary LaPook you wrote: "According to the Navy search and rescue manual, a ship the size of the Itasca should be seen from 26 NM away and that is without the smoke."
1. I recall reading somewhere that Earhart was flying at 1000ft on her approach to the island. Is that correct?
2. Had any arrangements been made for Itasca to ‘make smoke’ or did she decide to do so anyway while she was holding off Howland? She had two oil fired boilers. I know that when we were tasked with making a dummy attack on JFK somewhere off Norway at around 300’, the first thing we saw was the smoke from miles away. Eventually her topmasts came into view followed eventually by the whole ship. By that time just about every plane in the task group had called ‘splash’ on us and a couple were formatting on us. DaveP
