established at Pensacola, Florida, in January 1914 with Mustin as its commanding officer. On April 24 of that year, and for a period of approximately 45 days afterward, five floatplanes and flying boats flown by ten aviators operated from Mississippi and the cruiser Birmingham off Veracruz and Tampico, Mexico, respectively, conducting reconnaissance for troops ashore in the wake of the Tampico Affair. In January 1912, the British battleship took part in aircraft experiments at Sheerness. She was fitted for flying off aircraft with a downward-sloping runway which was installed on her foredeck, running over her forward gun turret from her forebridge to her bow and equipped with rails to guide the aircraft. The Gnome-engined Short Improved S.27 "S.38", pusher seaplane piloted by Lieutenant Charles Samson become the first British aircraft to take-off from a ship while at anchor in the River Medway, on 10 January 1912. Africa then transferred her flight equipment to her sister ship . In May 1912, with Commander Samson again flying the "S.38", the first ever instance of an aircraft to take off from a ship which was under way occurred. Hibernia steamed at at the Royal Fleet Review in Weymouth Bay, England. Hibernia then transferred her aviation equipment to battleship . Based on these experiments, the Royal Navy concluded that aircraft were useful aboard ship for spotting and other purposes, but that interference with the firing of guns caused by the runway built over the foredeck and the danger and impracticality of recovering seaplanes that alighted in the water in anything but calm weather more than offset the desirability of having airplanes aboard. In 1912, the nascent naval air detachment in the United Kingdom was amalgamated to form the Royal Flying Corps and in 1913 a seaplane base on the Isle of Grain, an airship base at Kingsnorth and eight new airfields were approved for construction. The first aircraft participation in naval manoeuvres took place in 1913 with the cruiser converted into a seaplane carrier. In 1914, naval aviation was split again, and became the Royal Naval Air Service. However, shipboard naval aviation had begun in the Royal Navy, and would become a major part of fleet operations by 1917. Other early operators of seaplanes were Germany, within its Marine-Fliegerabteilung naval aviation units within the Kaiserliche Marine, and Russia. In May 1913 Germany established a naval zeppelin detachment in Berlin-Johannisthal and an airplane squadron in