Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-19
LARSEN SWEEPS
SAFELY THROUGH
NIAGARA RAPIDS
Captain Hazards Life on Voyage
Over Whirlpool in Little
Motor Boat
DARING SKIPPER'S LEG HURT
Craft Shoots Twenty Feet Out of
Water and PIungeS
Over BouIderS
DARING SKIPPER'S LEG HURT
ASSOCIATED Press)

NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y, Sept. 18.-
Capt, Klaus Larsen, in his little motor
boat, the F'erro, late this afternoon
made a successful trip from the foot
of the cataract through the whirlpool
rapids to within a mile of Lewiston, a
distance of four and half miles.
He started from the Maid of the Mist
dock at 4:45 and ran on a rock near
the American shore at 330 Despite
the battering of the whirlpool rapids,
Larsen went through safely, but his
boat was leaking badly at the finish
and through the trip.
Larsen intended to start at 3 p. M,
but engine trouble delayed him and
besides the authorities threatened to
arrest him for attempted suicide.
RAPIDS HIDE LITTLE BOAT
The boat swung out under the cam
tileVer bridge and into the whirlpool.
Larsen held to the middle of the
channel and in less than three minutes
had reached the great pool. In the trip
through the rapids the little boat was
lost to sight most of the time, but at
Great Wave it was shot twenty feet
out of the water. The boat landed
right and continued to the pool. Lar
sen kept to the outer edge of the pool
and passed down without accident.
Just as he left the pool the engine
stopped working and Larsen was at
the mercy of the water hardly less vi
olent than that above.
The boat swung around stern first
and turned completely over, Larsen
coming up with it, badly battered.
Here, also, his leg was injured.
After that Larsen was a mere play
thing of the rapids, unable to hold
the course, the boat swinging from one
| side to the other. After going through
| the Devils Hole the Ferro swung to-
ward the rocks on the American side,
rolled over one boulder and went fast
| between two rocks. There Larsen
stayed for five minutes, forty feet from
shore, working desperately to release
the craft.
COMBERs POUND CRAFT
Getting free, he was hit by comber
and went careening toward the mid
die. At the bend, with the Lewiston
| bridge in sight, the boat drifted to-
ward the American side again and
was then caught in the shore eddy.
| The Ferro grounded again, this ume
near enough to shore to be caught by
| Roy Rockwell of this city, who Waded
| into the water and caught rope
thrown by Larsen.
Larsen wanted to continue the trip,
but having accomplished the worst
| part of the journey, he was persuaded
| to board a trolley to Lewiston, setting
the boat adrift.
"The trip was worse than thought
it would be-" said Larsen, but [ am
not hurt and I will do it again some-
| time with another boat. My leg was
| iammed when she tipped over, but
that's all. The engine worked fine
| through the rapids and ] could have
made the trip in thirty minutes II II
had not stopped"
| Except the old Maid of the Mist, sent
through in 1854 to avoid seizure, Lar
sens is the only engine-propelled craft
to have gone through the rapids.
| Peter Nissen of Chicago, in 1900 ana
| G.. A. Percy, in 1888 and 1891, went
through the rapids safely In barrels.
No one else has ever passed through
! the rapids and lived.