THROUGH four long centuries, man heard no tocsin to spur him on to higher, bolder adventure than that which set him out across the vast Pacific. Nowhere on the face of the globe was there a stage of such proportions, so fit for vivid pageantry. Upon that stage, before that background of an ocean that covers half the world's dimensions, ventured the proud Magellan leading his tiny caravels across an endless sea...free-booting Drake fled homeward with the plunder of a mystic continent...roving whalers sought out siren islands of undreamed peace and loveliness...courageous explorers, great men of war, bold men of peace dipped in and out of forbidden ports, sped homeward with tales of magic lands still hid behind the sunset. Tall-masted Yankee clipper ships, with billowing sails and decks awash, raced half way 'round the globe to win a trade near fable in its richness. Then steam had come and clumsy craft, smoke belching from their towering stacks, ploughed the trackless miles to sweep forever from the seas the proud old clipper ships. Great ocean liners followed - and here the saga was to end. The islands of Hawaii lay no further from our western coast than Europe from our east. And even far-off China was scarcely three weeks distant. Men said that half a world of sea could surely shrink no less than this! Yet, even as they spoke, a winged generation was already moving onto the stage. They had already shrunk the continents to a third their former size. Three weeks to China? World markets and modern industry separated by three costly weeks just because nine thousand miles of ocean intervened? Three weeks was more than ample time to circle all the globe - if only wings were strong enough and man could learn to guide them well across that ocean barrier! How that bold dream was turned into reality is now a well-known story: a nation's industry joined with pioneers to meet the challenge. Designers labored to bring forth huge-winged clipper ships, greater than any before them; to develop tremendous power plants, propellers, a hundred instruments. Pan American turned the Caribbean into a working laboratory from which to draw men, methods and materials for ocean conquest. Pilots of airplanes became captains of ocean air-liners; masters of celestial navigation, of weather, of seamanship; others became flying engineers to man the power plants; still others perfected radio until it could span an entire ocean with its guiding signals. Ahead into the Pacific went an army of young Americans to build air bases thousands of miles apart for an aerial highway to the Orient across a trio of almost unknown dots on the ocean's map. While bases still were building, trail-blazing Clippers began to move across the ocean path which no airman head ever ventured. With quiet, effortless precision that thrilled a watching world, flight after flight was made - to Hawaii, to Midway, then to Wake, to Guam, finally, with the first United States Ocean Air Mail, to the far-off Philippines. A hundred trips, a million miles of flying, before the astounding aerial bridge was at last thrown open to passengers. Along it, now, men and mail and merchandise could reach Hawaii overnight; could speed to far-off China in a few hours more than five brief days. In all the stirring history of the great Pacific there can be no more thrilling chapter.
IN ALL the travel wonders of a world now brought within the compass of a few swift days on the fleet wings of the airplane - there is no travel magic to match this aerial voyage to the other side of the world. No cold, prosaic type of the time-table's ordered listing can hide the wonder of it all. "Leave San Francisco every Wednesday (3:00 P. M.). Arrive Honolulu Thursday (9:00 A. M.). Midway Island...Friday. Wake Islands (here Eastern Hemisphere Time) Sunday...Guam...Monday. Manila...Tuesday. Macao-Hongkong...Wednesday (12:00 Noon)" Hongkong but five and one-half days? Hawaii, overnight? Fantastic? No, as simple as that! In one long week-end, half the world will pass beneath you. At your wish any part of China, Japan, Indo-China, Batavia, Bali, Malaya, India lies at your feet. Hawaii for a week-end! Half way 'round the world and back again on a simple two weeks' cruise, with every night but two ashore in a different land! Here is a travel-magic Aladdin never dreamed of...a practical, yours-to-command magic that, in the same time you would spend on a hurried motor trip to a nearby resort, will whisk you across the world to the very doorway to the glamorous Orient. Who has not dreamed of basking on the romantic beach of Waikiki? Of sampling the seductive lure of these scented islands, with their soft-voiced dancing maidens and the south sea island magic of their moonlight-flooded palms? Of exploring the wonderlands of the lovely Philippines, and the scintillating life of old Manila. Who has never dreamed of seeing China - that treasure-house of travel wonders that no one who lives upon this world should ever fail to see? Once these were so far away that few could ever hope to reach them. No longer! The travel adventure of a lifetime is yours for the taking. Where can one match the indescribable wonder of reaching the island paradise of Hawaii between a single sunset and dawn? Of stepping ashore in the Philippines one your fifth day from home? Of stepping from your own home into the very heart of the Orient, on the other side of the world, in just five and a half days' travel? Never again will this opportunity offer...the opportunity to experience this new-day miracle of travel while the wonder is still fresh upon it - while the flight across an ocean is still looked upon as reserved for only those who have the world to command. While those unbelievable little mid-ocean islands of Midway, Wake and Guam are still unknown to tourist's tours. And the manner of your travel is still the greatest wonder of it all...The thrill of soaring majestically through a star-lit night and knowing than an ocean is fleeing beneath your wings...The thrill of seeing fair, far-distant lands rise from beyond the earth's far circle and move beneath your window just for your to look upon...The thrilling experience of being among the first ever to set foot upon the new-found island colonies of the age-old Pacific, which fewer than a score of men had ever seen before the coming of these flying clipper ships...Here, within the time limits of an ordinary vacation, are priceless experiences that will last a lifetime through. At San Francisco, your clipper ship is waiting...!