Milford chronicle., 1908-10-16
THEIR BALLOON
LOST AT SEA
The Saint Louis Met Disaster
OF German Coast.
OCCUPANTS SAVED BY VESSEL

Americans In international Balloon
Race Lost Their Bearings at Night
and Were Carried to sea-Landed
In Water and For An Hour Were
sufeted BY the Waves, When Life
boat Came to Their Reseue-At-
tempt to Save Balloon Failed and 1t
Was Washed Away.
Berlin. oct. 1.-THE second OF the
three American balloons that started
/ in the race for the international trophy
/ on Sunday from Schmargendorf mas
met disaster in the North sea. The
Saint Louis. manned by N. H. Arnold,
| of North Adams, Mass, and Harry }.
Hewitt. was carried overland by
treacherous air currents, and later IN
the haze the aeronauts lost their bear
ings until suddenly they saw the guard
lights of an unknown coast.
This meant that they must descend
or risk the danger of being driven far
out Of the track Of vessels. They chose
the former course. and for an hour
they were buffeted by the waves, al
most giving up in despair.
Eventually they were rescued by a
ifeboat. and the first intimation that
an accident had occurred to the Saint
Louis was conveyed in a wireless mes
sage from Arnold. saying: Lost
everything in the North sea-
Mr.. Arnold told a graphic story Of
their descent and rescue by a lifeboat
He said:
"All day Monday. with the excep-
ton of the early afternoon. we were
unable to see the earth. and we low
cred the balloon repeatedly to com
municate with the people to ascertain
our whereabouts. Apparently we could
not make them understand, but this
probably was due to our poor German.
Finally we decided to risk proceed
ings. still having twenty sacks OF bal
last.
Moving in a northwesterly direc-
ton in the evening, we passed a city
the lights Of which were visible five
miles to the west, and we learned
later that it was Bremerhaven. Soon
afterwards we noticed lighthouses and
buoys which convinced us that we
were moving above big water, but we
had no idea where we were.
I'm order to avoid drifting out OF the
line Of ship traffic we concluded to go
down to the water. but before doing 1
so we put on life preservers. This was .
perilous task, for it was dark and
there was great danger OF being |
swamped in the basket.
After pitching about in the water
for almost an hour and giving up all
hopes of rescue, Hewitt, who had
climbed into the rigging. discovered a
iashlight. and soon after we saw a
lifeboat approaching US. The boat
however. could not reach us, as we
were being dragged through the waves
at the rate OF about fifteen or twenty
miles an hour The boatmen shouted to
us to jump overheard, which we did.
81 tried to save the Saint Louis
clubs balloon by ripping it up, but the
rope was jerked out of my hands.
About ten minutes later J was picked
up by the boat, which in the mean
time had saved my companion, Mr..
Hewitt"
Three of the balloons in the interna-
lional race are still unaccounted for
They are the German balloon Busley,
The Spanish balloon Castillo and the
Swiss balloon Helvetia.
A report received here from Wang
4rloog island. in the North sea. says
hat balloon passed over there, but
hat there were no further idings of
t. The fotilla of tOrpedoboat destroy
RS is searching the North sea, where
. thick fog prevails.
The English balloon Banshee, so far
IS present estimates go. has covered
he longest distance in the race. 275
niles. J