"We Must Be On You"
United States Coast Guard. Public domain (work of the U.S. federal government). Picture source
At dawn Earhart radios that she should be over Howland but cannot see it, and that her fuel is running low.
Morning of 2 July 1937, near Howland Island
The story
The sun comes up. Earhart's voice is loud now, so she must be close. She says they should be right on top of the ship, but they cannot see it. She says gas is running low. They are flying at a thousand feet.
The Itasca makes smoke so she can spot it. The radio men call and call. She hears them once but cannot get a bearing on their signal.
Her last logged message gives a line: 157 and 337. That is a compass line running from north-northwest to south-southeast. She says they are running on that line, north and south. She does not say where on the line they are.
After that the logs fill with calls that get no answer. In this story, the plane does not fall into the sea near Howland. Perhaps Noonan turns south-southeast along the line, the way the line points, looking for any land at all.
What the record says
KHAQQ CLNG ITASCA WE MUST BE ON YOU BUT CANNOT SEE U BUT GAS IS RUNNING LOW BEEN UNABLE TO REACH YOU BY RADIO WE ARE FLYING AT 1000 FEET
Itasca radio log, position two, 2 July 1937, entry at 0742 (KHAQQ was the plane's call sign)
KHAQQ TO ITASCA WE ARE ON THE LINE 157 337 WL REPT MSG WE WL REPT N ES S THIS ON 6210 KCS WAIT
Itasca radio log, position two, 2 July 1937, entry at 0843
BELIEVE SHE PASSED TO NORTH AND WEST OF ISLAND ABOUT 0800 AND MISSED IT IN THE GLARE OF RISING SUN THOUGH WE WERE SMOKING HEAVILY AT THAT TIME
Itasca dispatch 6002, quoted in Murfin, Report of Earhart Search, paragraph 9
The log records the 0742 and 0843 messages; the entries that follow on that log sheet are calls to the plane marked unanswered. The Itasca's captain told his superiors that the 0843 line had no reference point and that he believed she passed north and west of the island. The turn to the south-southeast is the story's supposition. No record shows which way the plane went after 0843.