USS Shenandoah Map Tour - Map Slide 6

October 16, 1924 — The USS Shenandoah casts off at San Diego around 10 a.m.

"After repairs were finished, the USS Shenandoah was ready to cast off for its last leg of transcontinental voyage. In Rear Admiral Moffet’s report from the voyage, he expressed that he and the crew already felt the trip was a success, having survived the difficult pass through the mountains. However, testing rigid airship technology was not the Navy’s only goal for the transcontinental trek—as was seen in Washington, D.C. and other cities the ship flew over—it was also about good publicity. Moffet wrote:

The repairs were completed, but the weather reports showed that stormy weather existed over the Northwest Pacific Coast. While the Shenandoah does not mind stormy weather, she does object to headwinds, for she is slowed down by just so much. However, one of the objects of the voyage was to show the vessel to our fellow citizens on the Pacific Coast, and departure from San Deigo was therefore delayed until the weather cleared in the Northwest.  We then headed for and passed near San Pedro and over Long Beach and Los Angeles, passing over Los Angeles during the noon hour. The din from whistles and automobile horns was almost deafening, and even at our altitude of 1500 feet, made much more noise than the engine of the Shenandoah. The roofs of most of the larger buildings were black with people."