(click image to enlarge)
The summer of 1938 saw a number of advances and records in Transatlantic travel that, as Shepard suggests in the present cartoon, served to shrink the Atlantic Ocean and weaken Neptune’s claim as ruler of the seas. On 8 August, the RMS Queen Mary set a record for the fastest westbound crossing of the Atlantic, arriving in New York from Southampton in 3 days, 23 hours and 48 minutes. A week later, on 14 August, the Queen Mary set the eastbound record, returning to Southampton in 3 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes.
Though the first solo, non-stop Transatlantic flight had been achieved in May 1927 by the American aviator, Charles Lindbergh, the summer of 1938 had also recorded a number of other notable achievements in Transatlantic aviation. On 18 July, another American aviator, Douglas Corrigan, arrived at Baldonnel Aerodrome, County Dublin, having flown solo and non-stop for 28 hours and 13 minutes from Floyd Bennett field in Brooklyn, New York. This crossing was particularly notable for the fact that Corrigan had built his plane almost entirely from scratch and for three years had been denied permission and certification to allow him to attempt a crossing. He had flown to Brooklyn from California under the pretence of making repairs and modifications to his plane, but when he was granted permission to return to California, instead crossed the Atlantic, claiming a navigational error. Just three days later, on 21 July, another landmark was achieved when the Mercury flew from Foynes, Ireland, to Boucherville, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, becoming the first commercial non-stop east to west Transatlantic flight by a heavier-than-air machine. On 10 August, the German airliner Brandenburg flew non-stop from Berlin to New York and returned non-stop as a proving flight for the development of passenger-carrying services.
E H Shepard’s cartoon demonstrates a prescience into the importance of the control of the waters and skies of the Atlantic Ocean, as a little over a year later, on the outbreak of the Second World War, the Battle of the Atlantic would begin.
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