ment being removed, all available space
reserved for the cargo. The L-59 was longer by 98.5 feet (30 meters)
than the others. This made room for two additional gas bags. Inside her
744-1/2 foot hull (227 meters) were 2,381,000 cubic feet (68,000 cubic
meters) of hydrogen. She could carry 50 tons easily. With only five
motors she averaged 62.6 miles per hour (28 meters per second).

Flown from Germany to Jambol in Southern Bulgaria, the L-59 was there
loaded with 9 tons of machine gun ammunition and 4 tons of medical
supplies and with 21 tons of gasoline for the motors.

[PLATE 22: Zeppelin-Dornier All Metal Flying Boat Type DoRs
III, 1918.

Zeppelin-Dornier All Metal Flying Boat Type DoRs IV. 1918.]

4225 Miles in Less than Four Days

The great Zeppelin sailed out of Jambol (Plate 12) at 9 o'clock in the
morning, crossing northwestern Asia Minor, then the Aegian Sea, south of
Smyrna and on between the Islands of Crete and Rhodes and across the
Mediterranean, reaching the African Coast by daybreak the next day.

The great Sahara Desert was then crossed, the L-59 passing over the
oasis of Farafrah and then Dakhla. Military headquarters at Berlin,
meanwhile, were trying to reach the Zeppelin by wireless. The German
Intelligence Office had intercepted a British wireless message to the
effect that the Colonial troops had surrendered to the British. The L-59
had passed through a severe storm the night before and had taken in her
radio antenna; and it was not until she was over Djebel Ain, west of
Khartum that she listened in and picked up the message. In a day and a
half the L-59 had traversed 1865 miles (3,000 kilometers). Without
stopping the Zeppelin was turned about; and after retracing its path
across the Sahara, thence over the Mediterranean to Adalia on the coast
of Asia Minor, and flying high over Asia Minor and the Black Sea,
arrived back in Jambol in less than four days from the time it set out
from that port. There remained sufficient fuel aboard for two or three
days additional flying. The ship, under the same conditions, could have
flown from Hamburg to Khartum and return. As it was she traveled 4,225
miles (6,800 kilometers) on a non-stop flight which, though it occurred
in 1917, today remains the world's record for all kinds of aircraft,
airship or airplane.

Larger Zeppelins More Powerful

[PLATE 23: Zeppelin-Werke Staaken Giant Biplane in Comparison
With Pursuit Plane, 1916.