The Long Way Home: A Journey Into History with Captain Robert Ford

by Ed Dover

The story of how a Pan American Airways B-314 flying boat, caught in the South Pacific, made an unplanned flight around the world following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Flying in total secrecy and radio blackout, Captain Ford and his 10 man crew flew over 31,500 miles in six weeks, avoiding enemy action in their effort to return safely to the United States. An astounding feat in 1941!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Aviation, World War II, Military History

172 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1998

Reviews

[Rodney Harvill · Rating 4 out of 5]

On December 1, 1941, a Panam (Pan American Airlines) clipper, a Boeing 314 flying boat, set out from San Francisco in route to Auckland, New Zealand. Its route would include stops in Los Angeles, Honolulu, Canton Island in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, Suva in Fiji and Noumea in New Caledonia. While the plane was in route from Noumea to Auckland, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After several days in Auckland waiting for further instructions from Panam, the crew received orders to return to Noumea to evacuate Panam staff to Gladstone, Australia. From there, they were to proceed to the marine terminal at LaGuardia airport in New York City. Thus commenced a long journey featuring stops in the following places:

• Noumea
• Gladstone, Australia
• Darwin, Australia
• Surabaya, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)
• Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
• Karachi, British India (now Pakistan)
• Bahrain
• Khartoum, Sudan
• Leopoldville, Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• Natal, Brazil
• Port of Spain, Trinidad

After a series of adventures and misadventures, the plane finally arrived in New York on January 6. One problem with which the crew had to contend pertained to fuel. The 314 was designed for 100 octane fuel. Surabaya had 100 octane but was reserving it for fighters. As a result, the plane had to top off with 90 octane. Likewise, there was only 90 octane fuel available in Bahrain. Consequently, between Surabaya and Trincomalee and between Bahrain and Khartoum, the crew had to carefully manage the fuel mix and fuel/air ratio to prevent pre-ignition and backfiring. Even with their efforts to manage the problem, one of the engines blew a cylinder head not long after takeoff from Trincomalee, forcing the plane to turn back for repairs.

Some adventures the crew experienced included:

• They lacked charts for anything west of New Zealand and had to go to the Auckland library to research their route.
• The crew was under instructions to maintain radio silence and could not communicate with the places where they were landing until they had landed. Because of the number of ships in the harbor at Surabaya, the pilot felt that he couldn’t safely land in the harbor and chose to land outside the breakwater. He was later informed that he had landed in the middle of a minefield.
• The plane flew over a surfaced Japanese submarine while in route to Trincomalee and was fired on, forcing it to seek shelter in the low cloud cover.
• At Bahrain, the pilot was instructed not to fly over the Arabian peninsula in route to Khartoum although this would have been the shortest route because the Saudis didn’t want anyone flying over their holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Once airborne, the pilot noted extensive cloud cover and decided to fly over Saudi Arabia, thinking that the plane would not be seen. The cloud cover ended just in time for the plane to fly right over the Grand Mosque in Mecca in full view of the entire town. People were streaming into the streets and taking potshots at the plane. Fortunately, the plane’s altitude placed it safely out of range of the small arms fire.
• The longest leg of the trip was the 3,100 miles from Leopoldville to Natal. Wanting to ensure that they had sufficient fuel, the crew exceeded the plane’s weight limit with the amount of fuel they added. They had barely gotten airborne when the plane entered the Congo Gorges and had to fly between the canyon walls while gaining altitude at an excruciatingly slow pace. When they finally landed at Natal twenty-four hours later, they had a mere two hours of fuel reserve left.

As should be obvious, this is a survival story in which the crew of the clipper had to live by their wits for a month, not knowing if something would go wrong and keep them from ever seeing home and their families again. Many of the hero stories of that time period are about military exploits, but this is an account of civilians who had no less guts and grit than their military counterparts. Hats off to them.

[SUKANTO SENGUPTA · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual, extended return sortie for an airline crew and their Boeing 314 'Clipper', off their usual route..around the world, through war-torn skies .... the long way home!

The Long Way Home by Ed Dover

Picture a gleaming Pan Am Boeing 314, high in the sky over the South Pacific, 6 days out from it's home base and on the the final leg of it's outward journey to Auckland, New Zealand. The Flight Radio Officer monitoring the air waves picks up a message of military action at an earlier point on their route and immediately relays it to the Commander on the flight deck.

The regular route back is no longer an option.

Captain Robert Ford, a Pan American Airways veteran, delves into his flight bag and retrieves an envelope marked 'Plan A - Top Secret - For Captain's Eyes Only', provided to all Vistara Comnanders by Flight Dispatch, prior heading out on long-range overseas flights.
The secret instructions, only to be accessed in the event of hostilities, read something along the following lines.....

"Your aircraft is now at the disposal of the military for whatever purpose deemed necessary.
The Boeing B-314 is a strategic resource.
The engine design is top secret.
The aircraft must not fall into enemy hands under any circumstances.
Contact Vistara Auckland station for further instructions. Then alter course. Maintain radio silence."

What follows is an aviation epic.... a record-breaking, 6-week 31,500 mile round-the-world flight by a regular airline crew and aircraft... beyond the call of duty, without suitable navigation charts, uncertainty about fuel supplies - servicing facilities, threat of interception by enemy aircraft.... - 'the long way home'.

The above events actually did take place and relate to a Pan American Airways crew and their Boeing 314, the 'Pacific Clipper', bearing registration NC18602, following the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, which signalled the commencement of WW2 military action in the Pacific and Far East.

The mighty Boeing 314 'Clipper' was a long-range flying boat built by Boeing in the late 1930s and one of the largest aircraft of it's day. Powered by 4 x 1,600 hp Wright Cyclone 14-cylinder twin-row radial engines, the B-314 cruised at 163 kts / 302 km/h (max speed 180 kts / 340 km/h), with a max range of 3200 nm / 5,900 km and 19,600 ft service ceiling.
This behemoth, weighing in at 38,000 kgs (max take-off weight) and manned by an 11-member flight crew and 2 stewards, could traverse the wide expanses of the Pacific... Atlantic and other transcontinental routes, carrying 36 passengers in unparalleled comfort. Seats converted to bunks... a lounge, dining area...separate dressing rooms for men and women. Galleys crewed by chefs from star hotels... 5/6-course meals on silverware...unmatched standards of luxury air travel. A 1-way San Francisco - Hong Kong ticket would set you back by 760 USD in 1940...13,382 USD (894,370 INR) in today's money!

Those fascinated by the romance of aviation of a bygone era, can make their acquaintance with this gripping odyssey, chronicled in 'The Long Way Home' by Ed Dover. A good read.

[Clyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible true story. This book chronicles the tough journey home of the crew of a Pan-am 314 flying boat in the weeks just after the Pearl Harbor attack. Trapped far from home by the war, Captain Ford and his crew were forced to make an almost impossible 31,500 mile journey with inadequate supplies, fuel, and charts. The story is little known now and was overshadowed by the events of the war at the time. While reading this story, I was struck again and again by the skill, courage, and can-do attitude of the crew. Part of the Greatest Generation indeed.
Good book.

[Neil Harmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book about a little known set of events in aviation history. In today's world of easy communication and GPS navigation, it is a reminder of how much things have changed and of how resourceful people had to be. The big flying boats were a special period in aviation and this book recounts what turned out to be the end of an era.

[Jon Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting true story about the crew of a Pan Am flying boat caught up in the swirling tension and confusion of the opening days of War in the Pacific. The December 7, 1941 attack by Japan on the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor occurs when the Pan Am Boeing 314 flying boat is in the middle of its regularly-scheduled passenger flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ. Reflecting the tensions between the US and Japan in the lead-up to the war, Pan Am pilot Robert Ford has an envelope of top secret orders from Pan Am (written in cooperation with the US military) as to what the plane's crew is to do in the event war breaks out while the plane is on its route to or from New Zealand. When the war begins, the plane is nearing Auckland, and upon opening the envelope they find their orders are to proceed to Auckland and wait there for further orders. After a week they receive their new orders - return to New York by flying west from New Zealand, so as to avoid the Pacific war zone. This meant traveling about 2/3 of the way around the planet with no charts for navigation, no established bases for refueling and maintenance, no funds, and for one crew member no change of clothes! The journey is full of unknowns as the plane skips across Australia, the western Pacific, south Asia, north Africa, western Africa, and South America, dealing with low-octane fuel, diplomatic tensions, and various maintenance issues.
This is a fascinating story, told with a lot of technical details about the operation of the plane. My only complaint is that the author has created a lot of dialogue and conversation, attempting to reproduce to the best of his ability what the various persons involved would have said as events unfolded, but the results are awkward in places. Still overall it is a story well worth reading. Four out of five stars.

[Janet C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this book from a reddit thread asking what story should be made into a movie - 100% agree with this. It would be a fantastic movie. Fascinating not just bc of the story itself but also for all I learned about air travel in the 40s

[martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been in my tsundoku stack for years -- last night I accidentally knocked it off the shelf and realized it would be the perfect book for the Popsugar prompt A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship. ...so I stayed up way too late and read the whole thing.

Robert Ford was my great uncle! So I already knew the general story, but not at this level of detail. It's the story of this enormous Pan-Am clipper ship he captained, which was en route from Honolulu to Auckland when Pearl Harbor was bombed. They received orders designating the plane as a military asset and ordering them to return it to the US mainland "via the westward route", under radio silence. This is the story of how the crew made it from New Zealand to New York across 5 continents in 6 weeks, scrapping for jet fuel and spare parts. As everyone else has said, it'd make a killer movie.

The book is heavy on the aviation/engineering/navigation details, lighter on the kinds of things that are my particular jam (literary descriptions, what). But the anecdotes were great, and the glimpses they gave of the old colonial world. (Leopoldville, blech.)

The author is up front in saying he's taking liberties to imagine specific dialogue, which seems legit given his own experience on the same planes in the same era. But there's a nailbiting episode when the unmarked plane is almost shot down by Dutch fighter pilots over Indonesia, and the crew can hear but not respond to the Dutch radio chatter debating whether to let them approach. Except... wouldn't they have been speaking Dutch... ? I'm guessing this was another liberty taken for the drama factor, but wish I knew what had really happened.

[Rich Saskal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story, pierced together many years later, of an accidentally remarkable event. I enjoyed it as a first-hand view of people suddenly caught up in World War II.
Adding to the appeal, those people were operating a flying board, one of the most aesthetically dramatic types of aircraft ever made, in this case the Boeing 314, the never-bettered apex of what turned out to be an evolutionary dead-end in the development of aviation.
In any case, this is the story of what was supposed to be a routine commercial flight from San Francisco to New Zealand.
But it departed on December 1, 1941.
We all know what happened six days later, right? If you are unsure, this book is probably not for you.
But the outbreak of war in the Pacific made a direct return to San Francisco impossible, requiring some McGyvering as the crew brought this beast the long way around the world back to the U.S., through territory that wasn't laid in with parts or the appropriate fuel for this state-of-the-art aircraft.
It's a neat story, as told to the author by the late captain of the aircraft. If anything, I would have loved to know a little more -- anything about the passengers, more about the crew. The author sticks to what he knows, however, or at least what the people he talked to could remember decades later. In any case, it's a great tale, and would probably make an even better one lightly fictionalized.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

At only 172 pages, this book was enjoyable and educational. It has quite a few black & white photos from the time spoken of in the book, which I appreciated.
Ed Dover was a pilot for Pan American, and he did fly the Pacific Clipper (flying boat) later on. At his 50th high school reunion in 1991, he found out about the story of the historic flight of one particular flying boat--a B-314. He interviewed the Captain and the Radio Officer shortly after that and also some of the relatives of the rest of the crew who were deceased at that time.
The book is full of facts and also dialogue (which I wonder if some of that was dramatized or fictionalized). The B-314 was flown from the San Francisco area to Hawaii, and had taken off from there for New Zealand when the Captain was given Top Secret orders to fly to New York, but by taking the long way around which ended up taking them to many ports before arriving there over one month later. This was done to keep the boat out of enemy hands. They had many precarious calls, due to mechanical problems, weather problems, landing areas, radio black-outs, and changes of orders.
We get to know each person well, due to the time they spent together and being isolated most of the time while in flight.

[Geoff Bawden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am quite surprised that I hadn’t heard of this book before or even heard of the flight. It is an adventurous slice of history that has aviation, adventure and some of the effects of the Japanese military thrust against western powers. The hints of the relationship between the military and Pan Am, the challenge of flying around the world to get home, the places that are visited, the impact of the “new war” on everywhere they go and everyone they meet is fascinating. The Boeing 314 is a character in its own right as this behemoth is flown 500 ft over the ocean and under a thunderstorm, as you tour her and see lounges and sleeping quarters, a dining room, the huge size of the cockpit (and everything else), the large specialized crew, the navigation by DF and octant, the catwalk in the wing to enable access to the engines in flight, the fold down engine cowl that turns into a scaffold for mechanics .. all from a time In aviation long past.

It might be niche reading for those that love aviation, history and travel but if you do - read it.

[Chase Boni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells an important and interesting historical story, however for me personally the fictionalized narrative detracted from the the book's appeal. I would have preferred either pure fiction or pure non-fiction. Also, the book events towards the beginning were described in much more detail than the events towards the end. I am not sure whether or not this was due to lack of source material, but it made the book feel rushed towards the end.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a nice book.

Well written and immersive, it does a good job of keeping me entertained and telling this story.

The author knew how this story should be told, and the book knows where to end. I never found myself bored, and felt a tinge of melancholy for the people in the story.

A truly once-in-a-lifetime adventure, only to return to their day-to-day. How great can life be to throw us such events, and perhaps this was the very reason those pilots and staff lived.

[Harshitha Ramesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Account of an Amazing First in Aviation

I greatly enjoyed this narrative of such an amazing accomplishment in the world of aviation. Some readers may be put off by the technical jargon, but at the same time, that’s part of what makes this a joy for die-hard AvGeeks. Dover’s prose is straight-to-the-point and easy to read; I devoured the book in a day.

[Bookwoman67 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and informative, but a bit of neither fish nor fowl. It's not true history, in that the author admits making up most of the dialogue - though not the events. But I wouldn't call it a novel either, because it doesn't really have the depth of good fiction in addressing theme, style, world view, emotions, etc. Still, an epic adventure and a quick read.

[meliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard a shortened version of this historical event on an AirSpace podcast and was intrigued to learn more, so I bought the book. I was not disappointed!

Written in a casual, memoir style it captures well both the emotional experience of the crew and significant specific technical. I was enthralled by both aspects.

[Raymond C. Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of great aviators

The aviators in this story achieved their success with skill, hard work, and successfully making hard decisions. The story has the typical self-effacing modesty of the really great aviators and the ingenuity and can-do attitude of the WWII generation.

[Ron Tyrrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing Journey

Book met or exceeded all expectations. Very little filler based on actual experiences . Being familiar with radial engines to have them preform or exceed their performance limits for that many hours with very little maintenance or break downs is amazing .

[Johnson Eng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting Heroism of a Bygone Era

Exceptional recounting of “ordinary” men thrust into extraordinary circumstances and stepping up to the seemingly impossible task and seeing it successfully through to the end.

[James M. Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fills a great part of a history.

Enjoyed reading this. The simple fact that they can get stranded in the South Pacific and literally had to figure out how to get home going in a direction they had never been before was fascinating reading.

[tristan hancock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

This book is for the aviation enthusiast. Highly recommend you read this along with Fate is the Hunter for sure- probably a much better read.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. It’s short but enjoyable. Easy to pick back up.

[Alex G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of my favourite non-fiction novels. You'll read about an interest piece of aviation history and question why it hasn't yet been made into a film.

[Charles W. Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read! Interesting story, but one that is not well known. Well documented and full of interesting information for today's pilots.

[Timothy Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pan Am at War

Great Action Tale , Read in one Setting! gave a Super perspective on available technology. During the pre--war Era. Adventure

[Ray Duran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story, something that seems out of a movie. The book has a lot of technical details (which I loved) but may not be for everyone.

[Ed Connors · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the first trans global flight made by a Pan American Flying Clipper in December 1941. The author, himself a former Pan American radio officer, did extensive research and interviews with the pilot. It’s an interesting story about how the crew made it from Auckland, New Zealand across Australia though present day Sri Lanka, the Middle East, Africa, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil and finally, New York City to return the prized Boeing 314 flying boat back to American soil after the Pearl Harbor attack.

[Sarah Wilmsmeyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting true story of a Pan Am crew that had to fly the opposite way around the world to get home after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting slice-of-life story from the early days of WW II. Definitely worth reading if you are an early aviation fan.

[Jennie Rosenblum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good read for a history buff who might not know about this aspect or the ripple effect Pearl Harbor had on other industries.

[Rose Coveny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing resilience, ingenuity, and courage from these men. This book tells a story of just a few men and their personal wartime experience. It is definitely a story that needs to be told.