Desert arrow with a point
QUESTION Why are there giant concrete arrows in the Utah desert?
These are the remnants of a series of arrows built from 1924 to 1929 to guide postal flights east-West across the U.s. In
featureless areas such as the Utah desert the markers were essential.
On August 20, 1920, the U.s. opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery route. There were no aviation charts or radio beacons, so pilots used a compass, map and landmarks to guide the way.
Flying in bad weather was difficult and night flying was impossible. even following a road, a pilot could enter a cloud, become disoriented and exit facing the wrong way.
The problem was solved by building thousands of beacons extending from New York to san Francisco, roughly along the line of the Interstate 80 highway.
The arrows were set into hillsides, desert and nondescript scrubland. each was surmounted by a 50ft steel tower and lit by a beacon. A generator shed at the tail of each arrow powered the beacon. Donkeys and trolley lines had to be used to haul the building material to these remote areas.
Advances in communication and navigation technology made the arrows obsolete and most beacons were decommissioned in the 1940s.
The towers were torn down and the scrap metal went towards the war effort. some arrows were destroyed to prevent enemy planes using them to navigate across the country, but many remain, including 11 in Utah and six in Nevada.
Harold Marsh, Deal, Kent.
QUESTION Aside from HMS Victory, has there ever been a more appropriately named ship than Endurance?
hMs Terror more than earned its name. Its sailors suffered an horrific fate. Along with hMs erebus, the Terror was part of
sir John Franklin’s ill-fated attempt to find the North-West Passage in 1845.
The ships became icebound and were abandoned by their crews, all of whom died from exposure and starvation while trying to trek overland to Fort Resolution 600 miles away.
Autopsies revealed their canned rations may have been tainted by lead and botulism. The local Inuit reported that some of the crew resorted to cannibalism. Cut marks on skeletal remains found on King William Island during the late 20th century also suggest this.
Ruth Mallory, Southampton. seVeRAL Royal Navy ships that took part in the 1982 Falklands War were appropriately named.
The carrier hMs Invincible returned to Portsmouth unscathed despite being claimed as sunk — or at least severely damaged — by Argentina.
The Type 21 frigate hMs Ardent put up a strong fight against Argentine aircraft, which eventually sank her.
The two assault ships, hMs Fearless and hMs Intrepid, also defended themselves well. Intrepid even shot down a skyhawk attack aircraft with a 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun, the last success attributed to this 1930s era weapon.
Dr Colin M. Barron, Dunblane, Stirling.
BRUNeL’s Great Western (1838, 236ft long, 1,320 tons), Great Britain (1843, 322 ft long, 3,270 tons) and Great eastern (1858, 692ft long, 22,500 tons) deservedly had the prefix ‘great’ as they were each the longest and largest vessels of their day.
Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby, Lincs.
QUESTION Is the Mongolian death worm fact or fiction?
The Mongolian death worm is a mysterious, deadly creature said to inhabit the Gobi desert in Asia. In Mongolia, it is known as Olgoi-khorkhoi, meaning large intestine worm.
Westerners first read about it in 1926’s On The Trail Of Ancient Man by U.s. explorer Roy Chapman Andrews.
In the summer of 1919, Andrews and his party were in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, then called Urga, organising a trip across the Gobi desert. They were invited to meet the Premier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other officials to finalise the details of their permits.
‘Then the Premier asked that, if it were possible, I should capture for the Mongolian government a specimen of the Olgoi-khorkhoi,’ Andrews wrote.
‘I doubt whether any of my scientific readers can identify this animal. I could because I had heard of it often.
‘None of those present ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed in its existence and described it minutely.
‘It is shaped like a sausage about 2ft long, has no head nor legs and is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death. It lives in the most desolate parts of the Gobi Desert, whither we were going.’
sensing this could help his team get the permits, Andrews explained how the beast could be seized by means of ‘long, steel, collecting forceps’.
Moreover, he could ‘wear dark glasses, so the disastrous effects of even looking at so poisonous a creature would be neutralised’. The impressed officials gave the expedition their blessing.
In 1954, soviet author Ivan efremov published The Road Of Winds about his experiences as head of the Joint sovietMongolian Palaeontology expedition
from 1946 to 1949. he detailed conversations with locals about the death worm.
Czech Ivan Mackerle was an enthusiast of cryptozoology — a pseudoscience that searches for legendary animals. he would take his amphibious Volkswagen schwimmwagen into the wilds to explore. he made two trips into the Gobi desert to search for the worm in 1990 and 1992.
Inspired by Frank herbert’s 1965 novel Dune, in which giant fictional sand worms could be brought to the surface by rhythmic thumping, Mackerle and his party constructed a motor-driven ‘thumper’ and detonated small buried explosive charges.
he did not succeed in finding an Olgoikhorkhoi, but did provide material for the TV documentary Death Worm.
No evidence has been found of the creature. Improved knowledge of the ecology of the Gobi Desert has led zoologists to conclude it is more likely to be a species of pit viper or rat snake. Local people still describe it as a worm and some claim to have seen it.
Dr Simon Goodison, Norwich, Norfolk.
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