A plaque commemorating Amelia Earhart who moored her Seaplane 'Friendship' in the Loughor Estuary on arrival in Wales, & stepped ashore in Burry Port Harbour at the end of her historic flight, making her the first Woman to fly the Atlantic.
The Plaque was re-dedicated on the 75th anniversary of Amelia first flight across the Atlantic.
The Bi-Lingual plaque reads:
AMELIA EARHART
Rededicated on 75th Anniversary 18.6.03 The first Woman to fly Atlantic Ocean came ashore at this point from the seaplane 'Friendship' Monday June 18 1928 . Llanelli Borough Council.
I bet you thought she piloted the plane, think again. (read below)
Spooky fact - The plane landed in the locality of the home of the first man to fly the Atlantic 10 years earlier.
"Just after noon on June 18, 1928, inhabitants of the coastal town of Burry Port in Carmarthenshire caught the heavy drone of aircraft engines. Looking skywards they were soon able to pick out the graceful lines of a small orange aeroplane, making its way along the coast from the direction of Tenby and the far west.
The aircraft, soon identified as the seaplane "Friendship," was flying low across the water. She circled the Loughor estuary and just after 12.40pm touched down on the choppy waters at Burry Port. Inside the aeroplane was Miss Amelia Earhart and by landing at this small south Wales port she had became the first woman ever to fly across the Atlantic ocean.
Amelia Earhart was not the only person on board. With her in the plane were the pilot Wilmer Stultz and mechanic Lou Gordon. In fact, Amelia was rated only as "Assistant Pilot" for the trip - yet such was the novelty of a woman taking on the challenge of the Atlantic that Stultz and Gordon have now been all but forgotten.
After landing and mooring their aircraft to a buoy just off the town, the three flyers went ashore in a motorboat, braving the throngs of people who came racing to the area from Swansea, Cardiff and many places beyond. Before the day was out a seaplane and a traditional aeroplane landed at Swansea with parties of reporters, photographers and special correspondents.
They came to note a remarkable achievement, the "Friendship" having left Newfoundland only twenty hours before. Bill Stultz was well aware of what he and the others had achieved, commenting to a reporter from the Llanelli Mercury:-
"We encountered fog almost all the way, and there was considerable rain as well. Most of the way I was flying blind because of the fog and rain. We had no idea where we were, as we had not seen Ireland. We landed here in south Wales because we were short of fuel."
Such was the enthusiasm of local people and the press that telephone lines were blocked and reporters who came hurrying to the area from London found it difficult get their stories away.
The flyers had intended to leave Burry Port that same night, heading on to Southampton, but bad weather forced them to postpone their departure and they were obliged to spend the night in the Ashburnham Hotel.
Amelia must have maintained a low profile as several dignitaries who came to congratulate her on her achievement, failed to locate the intrepid woman flyer. Among them was the aviator Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, then living in nearby Swansea. He had been the first man to fly the Atlantic, along with Sir John Alcock:-
"When I arrived the crowds were so dense," he said, "that I could not get near the machine. I searched Burry Port for some considerable time but failed to find them. I know the wonder of their achievement and would have liked to have offered my personal congratulations."
One person who did manage to speak to Amelia Earhart was the reporter from the Llanelli Mercury. He managed to get his interview early on the morning after their arrival, before the three flyers took off again.
According to him Amelia admitted that during the historic flight she ate only two oranges and six malted milk tablets:-
"How lovely your country is," she said. "The stillness and the silence brings back again the almost awesome feeling which came to me as, hour after hour, we pushed forward through the thick clouds and fog. It was as if we were alone in the world. To think that 48 hours ago I was in America and now I am in Wales!"
Amelia Earhart did not take the controls of the "Friendship" during the trans-Atlantic flight but she has gone down in history as the first woman ever to fly across the ocean. And she and her colleagues landed in south Wales, a remarkable end to a remarkable achievement." Text Source: (
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