Western
Australian Airways again supplied an aircraft, piloted this time by SE Sutcliffe
who, on June 14, flew low along the coast line. Next day the Junkers was
sighted pulled up on the beach near Rocky Island, 160km (100 miles) from Wyndham
but still there was no trace of the two Germans.
Sutcliffe returned to the town and the Wyndham Meat Works sent their launch Kimberley,
under the command of Captain Arthur Crane to the reported location of the
Junkers. Thirty days had elapsed since the airmen had gone missing and
hopes of finding them alive were not very high.
Arriving at the aircraft, the
launch crew found a note stuck to the inside of a cockpit window: " 27 May
1932. Australia. Today we left the plane in float as a boat in a westerly
direction. Bertram."
Up to sixty men were now searching
the area but the terrain was very rugged and it was not until June 22 that
friendly aborigines finally found the men, by now close to death. They were
persuaded to eat and drink and kept alive for another week until the police
overland party under Constable Marshall arrived. He was the first white person
they had seen for almost six weeks.
On July 6 they were taken to
Wyndham on Crane's boat and hospitalised. With food and medical attention
Bertram quickly returned to normal but Klausmann's mental condition had
deteriorated to a point from which he never fully recovered. Bertram was
flown by West Australian Airways to Perth arriving on July 19 and Klausmann was
brought down the coast by the State Shipping Service vessel Koolinda.
The cost of the search amounted to
£361 which was subsequently paid by Junkers Flugzeug Lind Motorenwerke.
On September 18 a fully recovered Bertram and Fred Sexton, a Western Australian
Airways mechanic, returned to the aircraft with a replacement float. This came
from a de Havilland DH50 and was smaller than the original but it served the
purpose.
