Mysterious Airship 1909

Postcard, titled: Airship At Newport Near St. Woolos Vicarage. Photo Ballard Newport. Postmarked 24th May 1909.

Back in 1909 rumours abounded in South Wales of a strange object, like an airship, which appeared in the late night sky. It had dazzling lights that came on and went off at various intervals accompanied by a whirring sound.

On Friday May 21, 1909, The Evening Express newspaper headlines declared, "AIRSHIP SCARE, More Midnight Flights, CARDIFF BOUND, Vessel's Circular Trip, AERIAL LIGHTS AT PONTYPOOL", It reported:

"Mr. Horace Davies. of 20, Cyril Street, Newport, states that whilst he was going to Cardiff this morning, between 5.30 and 5.45, he saw an airship near Ebbw Bridge, but lost sight of it near Tredegar Park. It was then going in the direction of Cardiff and making a buzzing noise he thought it was a motor car." It added that "Mr. C. Relous, night watchman at the Newport Empire, also states that he saw an airship at 5.30 this morning overhead at Charles street, going in the direction of Cardiff."

The paper displayed a photo sent to them by Mr W L Ballard (the same as our postcard view above).

On Saturday July 10th, 1909, the Cardiff Times and South Wales Weekly News carried a report claiming:

"SCARE SHIP FOUND". It stated, "The scareship which obsessed the public a few weeks ago, it is said, after all, is a thing of substance. In a private park little more than an hour's motor ride from London, there is lying what we are now informed is the same wonderful 'phantom' airship of the glaring eyes and whirring machinery that struck terror into the hearts of Peterborough policemen and electrified signalmen of South Wales less than a couple of months ago. Comfortably housed in a huge shed large enough to hold three airships, it reposes safe from prying eyes, while a guard of several men patrols the ground day and night, on the lookout for intruders."

The owner and inventor of the craft was said to be a Dr. M. B. Boyd who claimed to have been developing the machine for eight years. He said he carried out his trials at night with the utmost secrecy through April and May. He claimed to have flown to Ireland and back in May!

He continued, "The form of construction of my airship is known to very few people besides myself, and they are all pledged to secrecy. Unlike the usual form of airship, it has no car suspended from the envelope, neither is the envelope exactly cigar-shaped, but rather oval, and is divided into three separate bags. The works are placed in between them, the motors having a closed-in compartment to themselves at the end. From each end extends wings like an aeroplane. The ship is 120 feet long, and has engines of 300 horse power - a great difference from the Zeppelin airship, which is 446 feet long, and has engines of only 220hp. It is partly due to the fact that I have such powerful engines, and partly to the formation of the gas bags and the direct drive that my flights have proved so successful. Another feature is the number of propellers. There are four on the machine at present, and these can be increased to any number up to thirty-two. I can carry, and have carried, three men, and enough petrol - roughly 600 gallons - to last for 1,400 miles."

Dr Boyd said he had spent upwards of £20,000 and that he was making his scheme public as the secret could not be kept any more. He claimed he had submitted his invention to the War Office who were going to attend trials of the airship.

Well, the writer wishes he knew what came next. Was it a hoax? Did Dr Boyd really build an airship? So far we have not been able to extend the story beyond this point. We did find one newspaper photo of someone sitting holding a wooden joystick, but nothing else.

There was a person who was developing an airship at around the same time in the South Wales area. He was Mr E T Willows. By 1910 he had flown an airship from Cardiff, commencing at just after eight o'clock at night, to Crystal Palace, London, arriving at quarter past six in the morning. His flight crossed the Bristol Channel, and went over Clevedon, Bristol, Calne, Marlborough, Hungerford and Reading. Crowds watched and cheered his progress.

Were the earlier sightings in fact Mr Willows?

Oh, and about the photo - Mr Ballard told the Evening express that, "It represents the airship in flight over Stow Hill - the scene is over the top of St. Woolos' Vicarage."

Please contact us if you can add more information.