Hauling The Mail

XXXVIII

After announcing that the Graf Zeppelin would make an audacious 'round-the-world flight in 1929, Dr. Eckener found himself in a bit of a bind. He needed 15 million dollars to refit and outfit the Graf Zeppelin for the voyage, and it was money no one seemed to have.

 

Dr. Hugo Eckener

Germany was suffering from a serious recession and had been since 1927, a recession that would blacken into the worst of the Great Depression of any industrialized nation by 1931. The Weimar government looked askance therefore at funding an expensive zeppelin expedition. Eckener quickly realized that he would have to seek other, unusual forms of funding if he wanted to go "Around The World In Fourteen Days."

He was rescued, in part, by William Randolph Hearst, who agreed to pay matching funds for whatever Eckener raised for the flight. Hearst's only preconditions were that his papers have exclusive English-language coverage of the voyage, and that the trip begin and end in America.

William Randolph Hearst

Armed with what was essentially a blank check from Hearst, Eckener was able to interest a few wealthy world travelers to pay the extraordinary price of $2,500.00 to circle the world. He was also able to get the nations he planned to overfly to assign "delegates" to the flight, all of whom were subsidized by their home country. The German Press raised some $25,000.00 as well. The rest of the 20 passengers were journalists.

Stamp collectors around the world still pay handsomely for mail franked aboard the Graf Zeppelin

Germany's newspapers having funded part of the voyage, the German government managed to find funds to match Hearst's donation --- except that to get the German government's funds the flight had to begin and end in Germany. This seemed like an impossible conundrum, but Dr. Eckener came up with a brilliant solution. The Graf Zeppelin would fly from Germany to the U.S. on a "regular" transatlantic passage, and then begin its "American Voyage" on the return leg. Once the ship reached Germany, the "German Voyage" would begin --- essentially creating two overlaid world circumnavigations out of one.

He also devised a solution that put the voyage deeply into the black. Realizing that philatelists of all nations clamored for mail franked on board the Graf Zeppelin he decided to sell a special subscription that would provide the purchaser not just the ship's frank but the postage and franking of every nation where the Graf Zeppelin was intended to stop. The first subscription sold out in days, as did the second subscription, one of the subscribers being an American politician of some note, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

(Top) The United States Government was as excited as anyone about the circumnavigation, which (arguably) began in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The USPS issued a series of commemoratives for the event, as did Germany (Bottom)

The Graf Zeppelin remains a popular subject for other nations as well

With the extra money, Eckener was able to outfit the ship with extra fuel and stores, including lobsters on ice, filet mignons, and a full wine, spirits and beer selection. The Circumnavigation promised to be the most elegant airship flight ever made.