The Navy Curtiss NC-4 and the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic, arriving in Lisbon on May twenty-second, nineteen nineteen

A full month before Alcock and Brown flew nonstop from Newfoundland to Ireland, and eight years before Lindbergh landed in Paris, a U.S. Navy flying boat called the NC-4 touched down on the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal, on May 22, 1919. It was the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Almost nobody today can name the crew.

Why Were Navy Flying Boats Crossing the Atlantic in 1919?

The Great War had just ended, and the Navy had a fleet of large flying boats with no wartime mission left to fly. The NC boats — Navy Curtiss — were designed by Glenn Curtiss and built by the Navy. They were massive, open-cockpit machines constructed of wood, fabric, and wire, powered by Liberty 12 engines mounted in tandem pairs between the wings.

In early 1919, the Navy decided to send three of them across the Atlantic: the NC-1, NC-3, and NC-4, departing Rockaway Beach, New York, bound for Plymouth, England, with planned stops along the way.

The logistical support was staggering. The Navy stationed roughly 60 destroyers across the Atlantic, spaced about every 50 miles. Each destroyer burned searchlights at night and fired star shells so the pilots could spot them. That was how you crossed an ocean in 1919 — you lined the entire route with warships.

Who Was Albert Cushing Read?

The NC-4’s commander was Lieutenant Commander Albert Cushing Read — a quiet, unflashy naval aviator who had spent the war flying coastal patrol. No one was writing newspaper stories about Read before this flight. He was simply the steady hand the Navy trusted with the fourth hull.

The NC-4 was actually considered the weakest of the three aircraft. She had mechanical trouble before the flight even started, suffering an engine failure during a test flight and limping from Montauk to Rockaway for repairs.

How Did the Transatlantic Crossing Unfold?

On May 8, 1919, all three flying boats lifted off from Rockaway Beach headed for Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland. The NC-4 had engine trouble again on the first leg and put down in the ocean near Chatham, Massachusetts. The other two made it to Trepassey on schedule. Read and his crew spent days repairing engines, flew to Halifax, and finally caught up — behind schedule and widely considered the weak link.

On May 16, all three boats departed Trepassey for the Azores, the critical leg: over 1,000 miles of open Atlantic.

The formation quickly broke apart:

NC-1 got lost in fog, lost visual contact with the destroyers, landed in the ocean, taxied for hours, got swamped by waves, and was rescued by a Greek freighter. The airplane sank.
NC-3, commanded by John Towers — the senior officer of the entire expedition — also got lost in fog and came down roughly 200 miles short of the Azores. Towers refused rescue from a passing ship because accepting a tow would disqualify the crossing. He taxied his damaged flying boat across 200 miles of open ocean over three days. When the NC-3 finally limped into Ponta Delgada harbor, she was a wreck — wings torn, hull battered. She never flew again.
NC-4 found a gap in the fog. Navigator Herbert Rodd got his celestial fixes. The crew spotted the destroyers. On the morning of May 17, the NC-4 touched down at Horta in the Azores — the first airplane to fly across the Atlantic.

The Arrival in Lisbon

Read waited for weather in the Azores, flew to Ponta Delgada, then departed for mainland Europe on May 20. Two days later, on May 22, 1919, the NC-4 landed on the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal. Thousands of people lined the waterfront. The Portuguese navy fired salutes.

The crew had completed the first transatlantic flight in history — roughly 3,900 nautical miles from Rockaway Beach to Lisbon, with stops along the way, but across the ocean by air.

Why Did the World Forget the NC-4?

The Navy celebrated. President Wilson sent a telegram. But the public wanted nonstop drama. Just two weeks later, Alcock and Brown flew nonstop from Newfoundland to Ireland and crash-landed in an Irish bog — and that became the flight that captured the world’s imagination. Eight years after that, Lindbergh did it solo, and Read’s name all but disappeared from the history books.

The crew deserved better. Pilot Walter Hinton, navigator Herbert Rodd, radio operator Herbert Rhoads, engineer Eugene Rhodes, and reserve pilot Elmer Stone (U.S. Coast Guard) flew an open-cockpit aircraft across the Atlantic. Ocean spray soaked them on every takeoff. The engines were so loud they communicated by hand signals and written notes. Navigation relied on a sextant, a drift indicator, and dead reckoning. When fog rolled in — which happened constantly — they had nothing but destroyer searchlights and nerve.

Read remained modest about the achievement for the rest of his life. He stayed in the Navy, rose to captain, and retired quietly. When asked about the flight, he credited the crew, the destroyers, and Glenn Curtiss’s design.

Where Is the NC-4 Today?

The NC-4 survived and is displayed at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. She is enormous — wingspan over 126 feet, with four Liberty engines (three tractors and one pusher). A bronze plaque in Lisbon marks the approximate landing site, and another stands at Trepassey Bay.

Key Takeaways

The Navy Curtiss NC-4 completed the first transatlantic flight on May 22, 1919, landing in Lisbon, Portugal — a full month before Alcock and Brown’s nonstop crossing.
Commander Albert Cushing Read and a crew of five flew roughly 3,900 nautical miles in an open-cockpit flying boat made of wood and fabric.
The Navy deployed 60 destroyers across the Atlantic as navigational aids — a logistics effort never repeated in aviation history.
Of three NC boats that attempted the crossing, only the NC-4 completed the flight; the NC-1 sank and the NC-3 was destroyed after taxiing 200 miles on the ocean surface.
The NC-4 is preserved at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

Primary source: Richard K. Smith, First Across*, the definitive account of the NC flights, supplemented by Navy records held at the National Naval Aviation Museum.*