Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1920-04-02
Naval Officers Lost to the World
for Twenty-Five Days.
ARE FOUND BY AN INDIAN
Wandered -Four Days In the Dense
Woods and Were on Verge OF Death
When Rescued--ThriIlIno Story Of
Trip Told by an officer.

on the shore of James bay on Dec.
ID, arrived safely here. The follow
ing story of the balloon trip of the
armen was told by Lieut.. Stephen
Farrell:
Lieut.. Farrells story of the flight
and wanderlngs Of the trio begins with
the morning hours In Rockaway naval
air station on December - and goes
on through the flight, the landing, and
up TO the meeting with the Indian at
Moose Factory who saved their lives.
1T was Just an ordinary balloon
hop" Farrell began. ut was for train.
Ing. Hinton told me after we left
that the gas In the balloon was ten
days old, stale and impure.
Hinton called me up at about TWEEN
ty minutes to II December 13) and
told me l could come on flight II
wanted to. No special orders are
needed. We just got permission from
Commander Cummings of the post
and Executive Officer Douglas.
II am senior officer of the three,
but Kloor was in command of the
flight, as he Is balloon officer and |
am gunnery officer. l have been In
aviation for three years and have
hown In every kind Of aircraft. We
left at p. m.
Left With Four Pigeons.
ave had four pigeons; we let the
first one go with message for the
Brooklyn navy yard.
Hinton and Kloor had heavy I'M
derwear and uniforms under their fly
ing suits. / had only the underwear
and the flying suit. had a grip with
my uniform and some other things In
II. We had eight sandwiches and two
! thermos bottles Of hot coffee. None
OF the underwear was electrically
heated.
I'VE expected to land next morn
Ing In upper New York state. We had
no maps or charts except railroad
map of the Canadian Quebec Central
line, which l bought. We had three
chances to land before we did. We did
stop once at Wells, N. Y.
I'VE made fast to tree near
light. IL was In window of a farm
house. A man came along and we
asked him where we were. He told
us, but he could not say what big town
we were near
kioor Game to Go On.
1--WE cast loose and went I'm again.
1t rained and blew during the night.
we could have landed at Ottawa at
III p. m. We saw the lights OF big
city. But Kloor is just a kid ana he
was enthusiastic about long flight.
w" all agreed that we ought to do a
decent flight. There had been rain
from Wells on.
THE wind was north by west. That |
night II blew hard and ralned. There
Nvas no sign of civilization. But we
Thought 1t would be all right In the
horning. At daylight we saw only for
ests. The rain had Gained down.
There were low clouds and fog.
NThe rain stopped at s a. m. Ode
kinber l4. We ate all our food dur.
the night. We had two packages
cigarettes and one box of matches.
you cannot smoke in hydrogen
Eloon. We realized we were I'm bad
i morning"
n IL n. IN. the sun came out and
fted up the gas I'm the balloon.
makes the gas expand and seeds
balloon up.
I've were fighting to keen I'm tba
All we saw was trees, lakes. ana
NJ. II was about 80 d. m that
paw n shack in the woods A.
III n ihntOht
In doubt about this until we
81 dog bark.
~ took bearings with the composs
~ shack and the place where the
IA Aarked. We decided 10 land. We
M IN low clouds about 1000 feet
"a The wind was north by west
SM IN had been heating up our bag
VA e began to go up. We reached
HM leet. 1t takes long time to go
IA hat height.
At3 Make a Bad Landing.
I'm clouds were below us and
sosI is. We got down about two
ygM IL was bad landing and we
Ian retty badly shaken up. We .
|Tx4 I hurt or thrown out, but the
.N51 was smashed against the [
srSsa balloon caught between the /
5a r had taken the pigeons into
SSd p to protect them from the
Usually they ride In a cage
De of the basket. The wealth.
SEssi bar and nearly freezing
'Si ee OF us stepped out Of the :,
ie3A our flying clothes. | took y
We were soaking wet. Kloor
geon cage. We started of =,
X ie pace to get where the y
We did not stop to I'm. :,
$500 hlloon. From the bearings -
- he balloon we figured the ~
z1AasAS )uth by east from us. =,
on Long Trek :,
ed through the forest on m
aqTripH NV ,,ri,, o..