The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-09-24
PREDECESSOR Of ANDREE
FtTI-IOlIN pORTER'S BALLOON
ADVENTURE.
Thrilling Tale of an Aerial Voyage
Thirty-fve Years Ago-Lucky Es-
cape from Capture.

lnlftN-nNe Tears Ago -LuchN rs
cape from Capture.
1T always seems to me that An
drees Nrctlc balloon voyage hadn't eN-
en- one chance IN Il thousand of escap-
ing disaster" said Gen. titz-John for-
ter to New York sun reporter.
"rhirty-flve years ago | developed the
use OF captive balloons for war pur-
poses. ana have since been "A close OBJ
server of experiments in aeronautlcs.
My experience with "A runaway bal
loon at Yorktown has in it a lesson to
aeronauts who ascend upon the bor-
ders of dangerous territory. My bal
loon had tantalized the Confederates
for many days. They saw that it was
doing some very valuable spy work,
and tried in every way to bring it
down. | was wholly unprepared for
IA fight into space, and it was won
der that, under the circumstances, |
gained control of myself and the ma
chine and made the ascent valuable
one, from a military standpoint. |
made the ascent just at the time by
special direction of General McClei-
| Ian, who wished me to take some OBJ
! servatons of affairs inside the Con-
| federate lines, with view to ordering
an immediate attack. This was Who'll
| ly unexpected by the balloon corps. 1t
seems that IA certain member of the
corps was new arrival in the camp,
and as he ranked little above some
of the old hands, they were jealous of
him, and made up their minds that
the best way to get rid of him was
to have an accident happen to the bal
loon under his management. They
deliberately removed all the safety
ropes. but one. and to that they APP
piled acid which cut the strands al
most in two The moment the bal
loon assembled far enough to strain
the remaining strands they parted,
and the airship, with its occupant,
who happened to be myself. leaped in
to space.
With every confidence in the balloon
corps. ! entered the basket hastily. not
noticing that there was only one safe
ty rope. and ordered the men to cast
off. | held my field glass out and
was sweeping the field with it, uncon-
scious of what was taking place with
the balloon until | felt myself flying
upward. far beyond the usual limit
\ glance doward told me that the bal
loon was running away. At first I WIS
uncertain what to do, because it was n
new situation for me. AS a rule Pro-
fessor Lowe. the chief aeronaut, had
accompanied me, and I left the man
agement of the balloon to others.
'Supposing one of the small ropes
dangling in the basket to be valve
rope, | attempted to pull it and let my
self down. Seeing another rope dang
ling in the rigging climbed out of the
basket and grabbed that with better
success. / noticed that | was ascend
ing through stratum of escaping
gas.
Il knew that | had control of the
balloon and determined to carry out
the object of the ascension. | had my
glass with me and swept the whole
field around Yorktown, up the PENN
sula to Richmond. down toward Fort
Monroe and Norfolk. l saw the fleets
in the harbor. | saw the camps of the
enemy along the James river and also
around Richmond with their flags fly
ing. Beneath me was Yorktown, and
the horse in the streets appeared to
be ants. masses of little spects.
"My second startling sensation was
| l
more of the gas | dropped into a cur
rent of air which swept me over the
enemy's camps. That meant capture,
the loss of the balloon and the failure
of the expedition.
The current | was i'm was rapidly
bearing me west, far into the enemy's
country. and | pulled the valve until
the balloon sunk into a stratum of air
| " CT | wi In
all my strength and felt the balloon
sinking rapidly. As the gas left the
silk bag the latter fell over and form
ed sort of parachute with the air
beneath it. This caused the whole
machine to sway and made me very
dizzy and uncomfortable. As soon as
| found my course changed to the east
took my glass and examined the
camp where | thought | would fall. I
saw the Stars and Stripes there and
that treasured me. | then gave all
my attention to personal safety
AT first | thought | was about to
be caught in tall tree, but | escaped
that and then foated over long lines
of stacked bayonets. / did not relish
being impaled on them, and gave the
valve another pull, bringing the bal
loon down upon tent. | was in the
camp of the Seventy-second Pennsyl-
vania, BaXter's Zuaves. The men had
been excited spectators of the course
of the balloon, but they all supposed
that its occupant vas Professor Lowe
I wore no insignia of rank. I did moi
undeceive them. They told me that
when the balloon was seen making in
the direction of the Confederate camp
body of our cavalry had taken the
field and ridden out with the intention
of charging into the enemy's lines tc
recover the runaway.
81 had landed more than mile from
headquarters, and after giving direc
tions for packing and shipping tho