The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-06
NOCOUET'S PATH OF DEATH.
UtRDTO no ny DAY ANDIN BOt7S
UHtT NE DID AT NIGHT.
Proof That the sculptor BallOOnist At.
tempted to swim Across the hay From
the Island on Which lie Died-Was TO
Have Sold II Beat" to n Newspaper.

There is no longer any puzzle or mystery
"a 70 how Paul Nooquet, sculptor and
halloonist, met his death. He did not
fall from his balloon, nor did he commit
snoide. The Coroner's investigation held
Yesterday in Whites undertaking rooms
in Amityville and Il careful examina-
ton Of tho hoiy showed that Nocquet's
death was due to heart failure or exhaus-
ton brought on by savere e~xertion in an
eTori ~ roach shore, in order to notify his
friends at thu Aero Club of the feat he
had accomplished, and, moreover, to keep
faith with a certain newspaper to which
he vas to give an exclusive account OF his
frip. and for which afterward he was to
' write an article for it's Sunday edition.
That Nocluet was far from being bent
IN suicide Is proved best by the plans he
had made for the future in the matter of
ballooning. 1t had been arranged that he
and Israel Ludlow, inventor OF an a%eroplane,
were to make an ascension this very day.
Ludlow was anxious to accompany the
sculptor on the trip Tuesday, but Nooquet
told him he must go alone in order to COM
ply with an obligation he had contracted.
Nocouet put the aeroplane inventor off
until to-day and exacted a pledge of his
intimate acquaintance to keep his flight
aecret. A photographer from one news
paper was on hand when his balloon scared
up from the yard Of the Central Union
- -. T,,N-l., o,,.-;r- Co, tLo
fateful flight.
With the impetuous daring that was
Characteristic Of the man and a desire to
have his daring feat exploited, Nocquet
made the rash attempt to reach shore and
telephone communication. The suffering
he underwent in that dash toward the
' alluring lights of the village Of A~mityville
was brought out yesterday by a careful
r~etracing of his travels across marsh and
creeks and a minute examination Of the
body.
Nocquet wasn't drowned. His body
was found high n dry on Colts Island
at a point where the tide could not reach
him. He had stretched himself out on the
sands on the highest point and 6fty-one
feet from the shore of the island, which
is about one hundred feet long and Utmost
as wide. He had stuffed his hat under the
left side of his face, folded his arms under
his breast apd kept on the heavy stabbed
life ~preserver-all done; no doubt, when he
found himself tuckered out and in an effort
to keep as warm as possible, 1t Is the
opinion OF Coroner William Savage and
Or. Julian T. Thomas, who examined the
body, that while he was reclining in this
position Nocquet died of heart failure.
A party of half a dozen, consisting of
Dr.. Thomas, Aeronaut Ludlow, reporters
and fishermen experienced in the waters
thereabout, vent carefully over the same
route yesterday that Nocquet had selected
in his dash for land. All hands were clad
in rIhbers and much better fitted for the
trip than was the sculptor balloonist. 1t
vas with the greatest difficulty that his
steps we're followed by daylight.
At low tide there we're to he seen plainly
the marks left by his heavy but sharp
pointed boots. All told he SWAN twelve
creeks, slid over nearly as many low mud
covered islets and dragged himself through
marsh grass that had a ~resistan CO like that
# harbed wire. The tracing party didn't
complete the journey in full, at least not as
the Belgian sculptor had made it. They
were forced to halt at the second arm Of
Duck Creek, which winds among the num-
erous little shadows stretching to the north
of Jones Beach and leading to the open
water toward A~mityville.
Nocquet had swum this arm OF the creek,
which is nearly a hundred feet across, and
another equally as wide. Both are little
hyways for the racing tide and are there
fore quite deep. TIL %retraoers had to balk
when it came to plunging through these
and on to the outstanding islets and took
to boats for the completion of the journey.
On the little mud strip beyond the first OF
the three arms of Duck Creek lay the dis
carded o~vercoat of Nocquet and the drained
pint brandy flask. Both were covered with
mud. The clothes, shoes and life pre-
server that we're on the body when found
we're clean as a pebble on a sand reef. Not
a particle of mud was to be found about
the body.
Leading down from where the body lay
TO the leeward edge OF Colts Island were
the plain tracks of Nocquet's sharp toed
and heavy automobile boots. The little
island known as Colts is not of mud for
nation, but of clean white sand. To the
Ieeward Of this island, which is the last of
the tangled group jutting landward from
~ ''Ab "" BNiVNSh VI OIlC DCdJllp "uciO |
Nocquet had landed safely with his balloon,
there is nothing but a stretch of water
known as the Long Haul, a lsherman's
name for the westerly end of the Great
South Bay.
A glance at those footprints, the absence
Of mud from the garments of the lead
sculptor and Amityville only a short two
miles away across that clear stretch OF
water told the experienced boatmen and
even the inexperienced townsfolk in the
r~etracing party a story that was unmis-
taxable.
Nocquet had plunged into the Long Haul,
mad tried to swim to Ian and telephone
communication, had become tuokered out
70 the last notch and had put back TO the
little island in despair. How far he had
SWIM no one could tell, but the double |
tracks to the clean sanded fringe of the !
hland and the thorough absence Of mud from
The w~rappings Of the corpse showed plainly
that he had been swimming in the open
water. 1t is evident that he had swum for
a considerable distance and for some time,