Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-19
THE LAST OF HOGAN.
Inventor oampben's Air ship Proves the
Death of the Daring AreOnaut.
The Balloon is Sighted in BTid-Ocean, but Parts
with Its Car and Sails Away.
Hogan Certainly Dead.


PROVIDENCE, R. L, July lS.-About
z O o'clock Tuesday evening big balloon
RAID over this city heading in a direc-
tioa lat would have taken it over Vine
"a ound in hour or two. A great
N%people here believe that the balloon
was missing Campbefk air ship, as no
asseispns are known to afave been m2ae
hereabouts.
NEW YORK, July ,IS--Falot Phelan Of
the. pilot boat Caprice reports that July
l6Iin latitude 80, degrees 80, longitude
7Saearees 40, he .sghted Rom the mast
heaAH h a long distance away balloon
dragging its ear along the Surface of the
water. He gave chase to 1t, but attSttn-
down, when about three-quarters of
mile from it, it collapsed and disappeared
from sight.
sThere seems to be no longer any reason
to doubt but that Hogan is dead. Pilot
Phelan was seen at the office of the pilot
commissioners this afternoon. He said:
SAT $3.50 'clook on the afternoon OF
Tuesday last, when we were about one
hundred and fifty miles southeast OF
Sandy Hook, running before "a stu
twenty five-mile northwest breeze, t4e
lookout aloft sighted two schooners aftd
a peculiar looking object lying near them
on the surface of the ocean. One OF tRes
two schooners was to the leeward OF tlss
object, which the lookout took to be &c
sunare-rigger, and was bearing noIthS
ward. The second schooner @
bearing east by southeast. 80
made up to the object, and about ,6s8o'
made her out to be balloon about fifty
to sixty feet in diameter. She was in
longitude II 80, latitude SO. AS it
was getting dark and we knew that
probably some one was in danger in the
balloon, we crowded on extra sail and
fairly flew over the water toward it. At
about o'clock, one hour and hall
after we had first sighted the balloon,
when we were about one hundred yards
from it, the balloon parted from some
heavy object in the water which 1t had
been dragging along, and flew up into
the air. When several hundred feet
above the surface it was caught in a
north northwest wind and went before 1t
east-southeast at the rate of about
twenty-five miles an hour. When we
first sighted the balloon and drew close
enough to make her out, she was egg
shape and Juggling very hard at what
must have been q car. About hfteen
ropes held her to the car which was
The balloon was assuming all kinds
of shapes, initiating and collapsing, and
at last it collapsed at the end and, as
Stunning the shape of pumpkin, arose IN
the air. There was nothing hanging TO
the ropes of the balloon. If Professor
Hogan was in the balloon when we came
up to her then he was drowned. Assist
ance could not have been rendered to
him by the schooner I spoke of as being
to the leeward and bound northward.
1t is not at all improbable that's
the schooner bound east, south
east may have something to say when
she arrives at her destination. We
cruised over the spot in which the balloon
and its car parted. There were no signs
of life and there were no floating objects.
Everything was as quiet and as calm ass
mill pond AT the time a heavy haze
prevailed, though the sky was clear. -
Hogan was fifty-six years old, aud
mace over four hundred successful
balloon ascensions and thirty-two paraS
chute jumps in the twenty eight years heS
has followed the dangerous BUSINESS
He was regarded as the foremost aerona lH
in the world Some of Eiks
friends are still hoping he may be five
and uninjured and landed in some oStS of
the way place. He had a contractt6 APP
pear in Ottawa, Canada, to-day g make
a Jump, and they regarded his absence as
a sure sign that some serious mishap has
befallen, or otherwise they say he would
surely appear to perform his contract if
he had to crawl on his hands and knees
to do SO.