The gold leaf., 1910-10-27
WHY BALLOON
WAS ABANDONED
WeIIman Says the EquiIIbratOr
Made the Trouble.
IT HELD DIRIGIBLE BACK
Says Airship Was In Good Condition
When Abandoned - Jack lrWin's
Graphic Story of the Adventure.

SdyS HtTSnip was III OOOo SOHOl1iOIi
When Abandoned Jack Irwin's
Graphic Story of the Adventure.
Walter WeIlman and his five COM
panions, who were rescued at sea from
the dirigible balloon America by the
steamship Trent, Captain Charles E.
Down, of the Royal Mail Steam Packet
company, about 375 miles east of Nor
folk, Va, Tuesday morning while at
tempting to fly from Atlantic City to
Europe, reached New York aboard the
frent
Mr.. Wellman, still wearing the
khaki aviation clothes which he has
worn since sailing from Atlantic City
in the balloon last Saturday morning,
showed 10 more i'll effects of the voy-
age than did his companions, other
than that he was somewhat pale and
carried one arm in a sling owing to
an injury to the little finger of his
right hand.
After Mr.. Wellman had greeted his
wife, his four daughters, Mrs. Vaniman
and Mrs. Loud, who is the aged moth
er of Mrs. Vaniman and of Engineer
Albert Louis Loud, of the Americas s
crew, the newspaper men worked their
way to Mr.. Wellman's side to ask him
the reasons for the abandonment Of
the dirigibIe and consequent lack Of
success of the voyage.
Mr.. Wellman surprised his inter
viewers by stating that the airship had
met with no serious engine troubles
and that the escape of gas from the
bag was negligible. In two statements
signed by Mr.. Wellman just after the
rescue and in conversation with Cap
tain Down and passengers on the
Trent, Mr.. Wellman was quoted as
saying that the dirigible had met with
mishaps so serious that the balloon
when sighted by the Trent could have
remained above the sea only few
hours longer and that her machin-
cry had gone awTy.
The equilibrator was our great
trouble" Mr.. Wellman explained. "Be-
fore starting out on this balloon vOy
age we were of the opinion that no
dirigible could reach Europe without
an eQuilibrator. Now we know that a
dirigible cannot get there with an
equilibrator. The equilibrator, which,
being partly formed of small tanks of
gasoline arranged in links and trailing
as tail down into the ocean, was the
very cause of our being compelled to
throw overheard some of our gasoline
on Sunday night and Monday. The
trailing tail held the balloon back and
at times pulled it down toward the
water, and we had to ballast ship at
the cost of loss of gasoline dropped
to the waves. Try again? Well, some
thing better than our equilibrator will
have to be invented Until it is can
not answer definitely when I shall
make another trial The balloon was
in good condition when abandoned"
Jack Irwin, the wireless operator,
said:
Nobody felt any fear, even when
things were going their worst. We quit
all right, but we quit only because we
were running out of gasoline. The
equilibrator, holding US back like a
new brake, made us throw out the
gasoline. We seemed to be going along
in the right direction on Saturday and
Sunday, and as Sunday morning dawn
ed the wind was working around back
of us to help us along. We found after
dusk Sunday night that we were we'll
off the Long Island coast and still
heading east by north. But the wind
helped us only for a little while. For
a while on Sunday it had kept us
working to keep off shore, but when
observations Sunday night showed us
that we were about 140 miles east by
noroth of Nantucket the wind began
to come ont of the north and started
our troubles.
1--WE held council Sunday night at
9 o'clock. The airship was trying to
break up things before the-council was
finished. The wind was beginning to
pitch us around and we were losing
headway and drifting off shore toward
the south. The more the wind came,
the more we bounced. We decided to
become a sort of free for all democ.
racy. That's when we started to throw
the gasoline overheard to keep from
hitting the waves crests."
1t was during the long drift of Sun.
day night and Monday morning, Well.
man and Irwin said, that the democ.
racy decided that Europe as an objec.
tive point now was out of the cues.
tion because of the compulsory lack
of fuel
so we decided to head for the
Azores" Irwin resumed. But we got
buffeted some more just after we de-
cided on the Azores, so we changed
our plans again to try for the Ber.
mudas All day Monday We were work.
ed so hard dropping gasoline over.
board and trying to make the balloon
behave that after another council
everybody was too tired to care much
for anything except 10 try to get some
sleep in the lifeboat. Early Tuesday
morning the Trent was sighted and
picked US Up"
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