J.E. Whitbeck was a worried man. He felt his job was on the line before he had a chance to prove himself. Here it was October 19 1927 and disaster was about to strike.
On the floor of his Key West office, seven mailbags sat beneath tags displaying a Havana, Cuba destination. They were the property of the United States Post Office Department. Whitbeck, as Miami’s representative of the Aviation Corporation of America, had to dispatch these bags by air that day in order to satisfy his company’s contract requirements with the Postal authorities. The bags contained more than 30,000 letters cancelled earlier that morning in readiness for their flight, but he had no aircraft to convey the mail!
Whitbeck’s dilemma had an unlikely genesis. It started seven years earlier with the enactment of the eighteenth (Prohibition) amendment by the Federal Government. When that unpopular Act was passed, overnight it became impossible to consume alcohol at the regular watering holes. Those thirsty folk with money to spare were initially able to draw on their stocked supplies to meet their requirements. However sooner or later they either reduced their intake or found alternative suppliers. Being citizens of the land of enterprise, some budding entrepreneurs in Florida realized that the answer lay in a non-American country. The nearest was Cuba.
Cuba only 90 miles away from the southern tip of Florida could easily be reached either by boat or aircraft but for folks in a hurry, why not establish an airline to slake their thirst faster? So it was that Aeromarine Airways Inc. was est ablished and soon became known as the “Highball Express”.
By the late 1920’s – with Prohibition still in force – business between Cuba and the United States was considered of sufficient size to consider a direct airmail service. Tenders were called and two undercapitalised players emerged. These were Florida Airways, formed by WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker; and Pan American Airways, headed up by Major “Hap” Arnold with a contract of sorts from the Cuban government to carry mail.
Then, a new outfit called Aviation Corporation of America emerged. Run by a group of young Yale graduates with Juan Trippe as their spokesman – they had their eyes set on a South American airline and were flush with funds but held no contracts.
Not surprisingly Pan American considered themselves a “shoe in” for the contract because of their established business. Alas, they had not allowed for the tenacity and deviousness of Trippe. Instead of tackling the problem from the American end, Trippe approached it from Havana. He dealt directly with the current Cuban dictator General Gerardo Machado and convinced him that the issue of an exclusive contract for Cuban landing rights to Trippe’s outfit would be to Machado’s advantage. The Yale men had calculated correct ly. They won exclusive rights.
Figure 1. One of the first flight letters out of Florida to Cuba with cachet and electric strike.
As a consequence the efforts of Pan American to secure the contract were effectively stymied. No win of the US contract could be carried off without the aid of Trippe. Some quick talking ensued with Trippe finally offering to buy out both Pan American and Florida Airways for a nominal sum. The mail contract, to commence by October 19th 1927 at the latest was won by the Aviation Corporation of America. For their flying operation they set up a new subsidiary with the name of Pan American Airways.
Figure 2. The reverse of the first flight letter showing the Cuban backstamp.
Recognising that the contracted company could carry passengers as well as mail, Trippe ordered two of the latest and best aircraft available Fokker F-VII tri-motors for the run to Cuba. Using Meacham Field at Key West as his base it was going to be a hop skip and a jump to Havana. One minor problem emerged. Fokkers using the Meacham grass field would break through the surface and bog. An upgrade to the field was required if Fokkers were to be used. The unexpected delay meant that the field was NOT ready at the contract deadline date and the fleet aircraft could not be used.
Thus it was that Pan American were landed with the mailbags and Whitbeck with his worry and attendant insecurity of tenure.
Th e mail had been processed by the Key West Florida post offi ce with an elect ric st rike at 7 am. It had also received a violet cachet indicating its “First Flight” st atus of a Foreign Mail Route, the designation FAM 4 not being applicable until March 1928. So far so good – now, what to do about the mailbags? How to get them to Cuba that day with his airfi eld out of service.
Seeking inspiration from divine or other quarters, Whitbeck looking out the office window across Key West Bay, suddenly spotted a small Fairchild floatplane land making for the fuel bowser on the jetty. Aha! Salvation! He ran out of the office to where the service launches were tied up and made to intercept the bobbing floatplane before it could even refuel. He jumped aboard the nearest launch and in no time had st arted the motor heading for the taxiing plane.
Cy Caldwell the pilot of the Fairchild had only recently joined West Indian Aerial Express, a small Dominican Republic company servicing the island’s sugar growers. He was on a delivery flight from New York to Santo Domingo when he called in for fuel. When Whitbeck proposed to charter the aircraft from Cy, Caldwell could not make the decision without permission from the airline owner Basil Rowe. Basil, on his way to the Santo Domingo flying a separate delivery aircraft, was somehow contacted by phone and agreed for the sum of $175.00 to make available both the pilot and the plane for the single journey to Cuba.
Figure 3. The first flight from Cuba to Florida was 9 days after the flight from Florida.
Whitbeck breathed a sigh of relief when at 8.30 am Fairchild FC-2 La Niña roared across Key West Bay carving out a white foam arrow with its floats before it lifted off. She was the carrier of the first Foreign Air Mail contract from the United States – and unwittingly the start of the great airline, now known as Pan American Airways.
When after just over an hour later the high winged aircraft reached Havana, it met with a delay by the Cuban customs officials. With blank looks and consternation they examined the tiny craft. They had expected a Fokker F –VII but got a small floatplane instead. The mail was quickly processed at Havana with an electric strike set for a time of 10 am and the slogan “1er VIAJE HAVANA – KW SERVICIO POSTAL AERO”. Caldwell having made the delivery then retraced his steps to Key West without any return mail.
Nine days later at 8.25 am on October28th 1927, Meacham field was ready to send off the first Fokker tri-motor diplomatically named General Machado. Pilot Hugh Wells, under the navigation of Ed Musick, completed the flight in one hour 20 minutes carrying 772 pounds of mail.
The return trip was completed later in the day with the first Cuban mail on the new route. The same slogan as had been used in Havana on the 19th was used on this 28th Oct ober flight, in addition to a violet timed and dated cachet on the front of each envelope. Almost three months on, by January 16th 1928, Pan Am carried its first passenger along the route.
When in 1928 Trippe absorbed Basil Rowe’s airline and Rowe joined Pan Am as a senior pilot, the service was expanded to San Juan via Santo Domingo. Rowe stayed on until he retired at age 60 in 1955 having logged more than 5½ million miles and 35,000 air hours. It is not recorded what happened to Whitbeck but his prompt action certainly saved the day
References
Captain Basil L Rowe “Under my Wings” (W.H.Allan London 1957)
Donald B. Holmes “AIR MAIL an illustrated history 1793-1981” (Clarkson N. Potter, New York 1981)
C.R.Roseberry, “The Challenging Skies” (Doubleday & Co. New York 1966)
This article was originally published in The Journal of the Philatelic Society of NSW (February 2004) and is republished here by kind permission of the editor.
