Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1889-07-19
THE AIR SHIP AT SEA
Aeronaut Hogan Believed to Have
Net Death on the Ocean.
TIE sToRY TOLD By 4 PILOT.

the Balloon sighted About zoo miles
East Of Atlantic City. where II Col
lapsed IN sight of Pilot Boat--A
Theory Of Death BY sufocatlon--AlI
Hope Abandoned.
NEW York, July To- Captain Phelan.
Of the pilot boat Caprice, who brings
news Of the fate of Campbelrs air ship
and of +. d. Hogan, who had UNDER
taken to steer 1t on . trial trip, was seen
at the Office of the pilot commissioners.
lie said:
"At $50 o'clock on the afternoon Of
Tuesday last, when we were about 100
miles southeast Of Sandy Hook, running
before . twenty-five mile northeast
breeze, the lookout aloft sighted two
schoOners and q peculiar looking object
lying near them on the surface Of the
ocean. One of the two schooners was
TO leeward of the object, which the
lookout took to be square rigrer. and
was bearing northward. The second
schooner was bearing east-southeast.
We made up to the object, and at about
half after 8 made her out to be balloon,
about 90 to go feet in diameter. She
was in longitude II 80', latitude 30 40'.
The Balloon Breaks Away.
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 few over the water to-
wards it. At about o'clock, one hour
and half after we had first sighted the
balloon, when we were about 100 yards
$sar.aE he hall A.
heavy object in the water, which it had
been dragging along and flew up into
the air.
"When several hundred feet above the
surface Of the sea it was caught in the
northwest wind and went forward 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
shaped and tugging very hard at what
must have been the car. About five
ropes held her to the car, which was
buried several feet under water. The ball
loon was assuming all kinds Of shapes,
initiating and collapsing.
SAT the last try it collapsed at the end.
and assuming the shape Of q pumpkin
arose IN the air. There was nothing
hanging to the ropes of the balloon.
eff Professor Hogan was in the balloon
when we came up with her, then he was
drowned. Assistance could not have
been rendered to him by the schooner
spoke of as having been TO leeward and
bound northward. It Is not at all inn
probable that the schooner bound east
southeast 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, no evidence that hu-
man being had found his death in the
water. There were no floating objects.
Everything was as quiet and as calm as.
a mill pond, At the time heavy haze
prevailed, though the sky was clear.
Was the Aeronaut xufFocated7
Many of Hogan's friends have given
him up for lost. They think that he
was asphyxia by gas in the air ship
and that the balloon then blew out 70,
sea and collapsed after nightfall and
that the heavy weight of the air ship
with the dead man in it dragged the
balloon down below the surface of the
waters and that, like many ship be-
fore, the whole outfit now lies on the
bottom of the sea.
This seems not only possible, but prob
able, as Mr. Campbell says the neck of
the balloon hung low down in the
basket portion of the ship, in close proxi-
nifty to Hogan. who must have, .of
necessity, inhaled more or less Of the
gas.
The popular impression is that Hogan,
after seeing the under propeller fall of
the ship, tried to repair the damage and
climbed out Of the cabin like basket fo1
that purpose. Finding he could do
nothing he returned to the car and then.
while trying to open the valve, was
overcome by gas.
A Balloon Sighted nc Providence.
A dispatch from Providence states
that at about o'clock on Tuesday even
ing big balloon passed over that city,
heading in direction that would have
brought it up over Buzzard's bay on
Vineyard sound in an hour or two. "A
great many people three believe that the
balloon was the missing Campbell air
ship, as no ascensiOns are known to have
been made in that vicinity.
This air ship cost 81, 800. Professor
Campbell says he will at once set tc
work to make another.