The New York herald., 1874-09-18
FRENCH BALLOONING.
An Ascent from Calais and q Plunge in
the North Sea-M. DurOuf's History Of
PerilOus Voyage.

An Ascent frOm Calah ana FIun&e In
the North Seam. Durouf's History Of
. Perilous Voyage.
From the London Telegraph, Sept. 81
M. Duruof and his wife, who made the perilous
balloon ascent from Calais on Monday night, nave
been rescued in the North Sea. AS one OF the at
tractive features OF public tete given at Calais
that day. 1t was announced that the adventurous
aeronaut and his vile would go up in their balloon,
the Tricoior, and il the wind was favorable tney
proposed to make an aerial voyage over the Cham
mel and land in England. The wiud was squally,
and moreover blew In the wrong direction. With a
southeasterly current the attempt would have been
made. but it blew varlously south and southwest,
and the only prospect before the voyagers was de-
scent the German ocean, unless they could reach
the distant shores OF Denmark or Norway. The
authorities forbade the ascent, but part OF the
crowd, disappointed OF the sensational episode OF
the days amusement, taunted Duruof with cow
ardice, and, stung by their taunts he and his wle
made the desperate enort 10 carry OUT tneir en-
gagemenr, ana LIE Trlcolor was seen rising into
the clouds just as night was closing In, and DRIFT
ing over the Straits OF Dover toward the open sea.
COMING DOWN.
So It continued to DRIFT for ten hours when the
gas being partly exhausted it lell into the North
Sea-
Then they saw and were seen by Grimsby 1sh-
ing smack; the crew FASTENED to their rescue,
pursued the car, which dipped into and rose out
OF the water like nying- fish, and hnaiy, alter a
chase of two hours, saved the half-drowned aero
some Ito miles from the Spur Lighthouse.
THE AERIAL LOG.
According to these data 1t would seem that the
balloon had travelled about three hundred miles
In direct line, its rate being between twenty-five
and thirty mites an hour, or about twice the aver
age horizontal motion OF the air.
INCIDENTS OF THE TRIP.
Suboined we publish facts taken from M. Dur.
uor's narration OF his voyage and ue:-''The
balloon went up amid tue acclauaton OF the
crowd and for the space OF 327 yaros went IN
heipht changed to the northeast, and
shortly afterwards we saw the French and English
lighthouses at sea, and we seemed to be going
more toward England than toward France
There were no vessels TO be seen at sea, and
night was coming on. felt that, in case should
mlze my ballast, and / decided TO pass the night
watching the extremity OF the rope, which was
touched the water threw out a very small guam
TRY Of ballast. AT four A NJ, just before sunrise,
l threw all the light ballast ous. and l discovered
that during the night l had been driven In a
northeastery direction. Not knowing the dis
tance was from the nearest land, and fearful OF
being driven by another current to the northward.
IresOlved to try to lower myself TO vessel.
manGuvred SO as to get down, and towards tVe i've
wind was blowing northwest. 1t is impossible to
describe my extreme thirst. The sea was
very rough. Without any Tear l opened the valve
and descended until ihe ropes were trailing in :he
water, and in an instant We were past vessel.
Al seven O'Clock we again sighted the smack on
the horizon, and saw that she was pursuing US,
and by degrees we noticed that she came closer to
US. The cold was very severe, and our limbs were
DecOmluR DeuuIuutu, ouE stIeuRtH vas idftbS CS
and the hope OF being overtaKen by the smack was
the only thing thai gave strength TO our arms to
hold on. My wiie's limbs were benumbed, and at
each jerk OF the balloon she became weaker and
weaker. The smack continued 70 approach US. l
pointed 1t out to my vile, and 1t renewed her
courage. i saw the danger they were in, and
began TO cut the ropes tlat traiied nom the bal
loon. had cut the greater part OF them, when
was dashed against the boat, and let myself iall
into it, l. like my wife, lay helpless In the bottom
OF the boat The men then let go the ropes of the
car and the balloon started on with mighty speed
toward Norway. The boat returned to the smack
We were put on board and taken INTO the cabin
where O good fire did not fail to bring US round.