"There is nothing special about flying around the world," George Putnam told his wife Amelia. "People have already done it" (Earhart 73).
             "Yes," Amelia replied, "but nobody has ever done it at the Equator, where the distance around the earth is the greatest" (Earhart 73).
             On June 1, 1937 Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan departed Miami, Florida bound for California by traveling around the world. The first destination was San Juan, Puerto Rico. From there they would go to the northeast edge of South America, across the Atlantic Ocean to Africa and the Red Sea.
             The flight to Karachi (then part of India) was another first-no one had ever flown non-stop from the Red Sea to India before. From Karachi the Lockheed Electra flew to Calcutta on June 17. From there, they flew on to Rangoon, Bangkok, Singapore, and Bandoeng.
             Monsoon weather prevented departure from Bandoeng for several days. It was June 27 before Earhart and Noonan were able to leave Bandoeng for Port Darwin, Australia. Earhart reached Lae in New Guinea on June 29. At this point they had flown 22,000 miles and there were 7,000 more to go.
             The next stop was Howland Island, a small piece of land that would be their refueling stop on the way to the Hawaiian Islands. It was 2,556 miles away from Lae and surrounded by nothing but ocean.
             The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was at the island to keep in radio contact. At first, everything seemed to go well. Earhart radioed she was making good progress and was within 100 miles of the island. Later she radioed: "KHAQQ cling [calling] Itasca. We must be on you but cannot see you . . .gas is running low . . ." (Lovell 283).
             After several more messages, she gave what she believed to be her position, then the radio went dead. The cutter Itasca, a battleship, an aircraft carrier with all its planes, and four destr
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