Off Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts – October 2, 1916

Forced landing off Hull, Mass.

          Late in the afternoon of October 2, 1916, Lawrence Sperry, inventor of the Sperry Gyroscope, took off in a hydro-aeroplane from Lynn, Massachusetts bound for Marbelhead, Massachusetts, and disappeared en-route.  Speculation as to what happened ranged from his landing in a remote inlet due to engine trouble, to being blown out to sea.   

     A large scale search was instituted.  Automobiles were sent along the shore roads while boats and a navy tug from the Charlestown Naval Yard were dispatched to search the water for wreckage. 

     Sperry was found safe the following morning after having spent the night drifting in his downed airplane off the coast of the Nantasket Beach section of the town of Hull.  He had been forced to make a water landing after he ran out of gas. 

     Prior to his ordeal, Sperry had completed a test flight from Amityville, Long Island, N.Y., to Boston, accompanied by Captain Leo Dewey of the U.S. Army.  After landing in Boston, he set out for Marblehead, and landed at Lynn where he discharged his passenger.  From Lynn he took off for Marblehead alone, when he ran out of fuel. 

     Source:

     The Daily Gate City And Constitution-Democrat, (Keokuk, Iowa), “Lost Aviator Is Located”, October 3, 1916