ten o'clock
These could be driven vertically or horizontally , and so when the big twin fans at the stern had got up sufficient way to keep the ship afloat by the pressure under the aeroplanes the lifting fans could be converted into pulling fans , but this was only necessary when a very high speed was desired . There was a signal mast and yard forward , and a flagstaff aft . The guns were worked under hoods , which protected the gunners from the rush of the wind , and just forward of the mast was an oval conning-tower , not unlike that of the _ Ithuriel _ , only , of course , unarmoured , from which everything connected with the working of the ship could be controlled by a single man . Such is a brief description of the Aërial Fleet which rose from the slopes of the Alleghanies at ten o'clock on the night of the fourteenth of March 1910 , and winged its way silently and without lights eastward across the invisible waters of the Atlantic . There is one other point in Mr Parmenter 's cablegram to Lennard which may as well be explained here . He had , of course , confided everything that he knew , not only about the war , but also about the approaching World Peril and the means that were being taken to combat it , to his partner on his first arrival in the States , and had also given him a copy of Lennard 's calculations . Instantly Mr Max Henchell 's patriotic ambition was fired .