The stowaway who became a superstar

Jul 7 2009 By Tony Henderson, The Journal

EXACTLY 90 years ago, William Ballantyne was basking in the limelight as the world’s first aerial stowaway.

William, 22, from Newcastle, had hidden away in rigging of the giant R34 airship, which arrived in the United States from Britain on July 6, 1919 after the first east-west Atlantic crossing.

It was also the first return crossing – but the July 7 edition of the New York Times went big on the way that William had made his own little piece of history.

His claim to fame has emerged from research by Alastair Dodds, principal curator of the National Museum of Flight based at what was East Fortune airfield in East Lothian in Scotland, from where R34 set off on her 108-hour journey.

Alistair’s research was for a presentation he made yesterday to the Royal Aeronautical Society in London to mark the 90th anniversary.

Now Alistair is hoping that William Ballantyne’s family can be tracked down in the North East so more can be learned about him to add to the R34 display at the museum which is just 75 miles from Newcastle.

William was known to have been alive, in his 80s, in 1979.

When he stowed away, he also took the airship’s mascot Wopsie the cat.

William had been a prize fighter before enlisting in the air force as an airship rigger.

The riggers’ hazardous tasks included the continuous maintenance of the airship’s gasbags with patches of rubber solution. Singing and whistling were encouraged because a change in tone indicated escaping gas.

William had worked on preparing R34 but had been left out of the 30-strong crew for the transatlantic flight to make room for an American observer.

So he sneaked on board while final launch preparations were being made, climbing up to lie on top of a girder between the airship’s gas bags.