George Schnitzer USS Shenandoah Collection

This small collection consists of material relating to George C. Schnitzer, Jr. (1894-1925), Chief Radio Operator of the US Navy airship ZR-1 Shenandoah. The collection includes five letters written by Schnitzer to family and friends while aboard the Shenandoah; two newspaper clippings; and several photographs, panoramic photographs, and color post cards by photographer R. S. (Rell Sam) Clements depicting the Shenandoah and the US Navy airship ZR-3 Los Angeles at or near NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Plans for the construction of the US Navy airship ZR-1 USS Shenandoah, the first rigid airship to be built in the United States, were begun in September 1919; her parts were manufactured at the Naval Aircraft Factory and then shipped to NAS Lakehurst for final assembly. The assembly began on February 11, 1922, and the Shenandoah was christened on October 10, 1923. Despite her relatively short life of two years, the Shenandoah achieved many firsts during her operational career. She was the first rigid airship to be inflated with helium; the first to use water recovery apparatus for the continuous recovery of ballast from the exhaust gas of fuel burned; and she completed the most extended operation accomplished by an airship up to that time, completing 57 flights, logging 740 hours in the air, and covering about 28,000 miles on flights designed to train crewmen in the science of handling large airships in naval missions. Sadly, the airship was to meet a tragic end. Before dawn on the morning of September 3, 1925, over eastern Ohio, the Shenandoah encountered a severe storm. She broke in two; the control car separated and fell to the ground while the forward section of the ship rose to a great height and remained in the air for the greater part of an hour before making a free balloon landing at Sharon, Ohio, with the bulk of the airship crashing near Ava, Ohio. Fourteen of the 43-person crew were killed. George Conrad Schnitzer, Jr., born April 9, 1894, in Newport, Rhode Island. Schnitzer enlisted in the Navy in 1912 and served as the Chief Radio Operator of the USS Shenandoah, from which he dropped letters to friends and family as the airship was in flight over Newport. Schnitzer was killed in the crash of the Shenandoah on September 3, 1925. Photographer R. S. (Rell Sam) Clements was born September 22, 1886, in Meade County, Kentucky. After service with the US Army, Clements worked out of the Washington, D.C. area before moving to Lakehurst, New Jersey, in the early 1920s where his skills with panoramic photography made him well-suited to capture views of the new US Navy airships based at NAS Lakehurst. Clements died on June 22, 1963, age 76.