The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1921-01-21
NAVAL AIRMAN
TELLS Of TRIP
Thrilling Story Of the Adventure
of the BaIIoonists Who Were
Lost in WiIds Of Canada.
DEATH NEAR WHEN RESCUED

Lost to tho World 70 Days in ALI
Wandered -Four Days in the Woods
With Nothing to Feat Except ths
Pioeons They Had With Them.
Mattice, Ont.-After being lost 20
the world for 70 days, four of which
were spent wandering in the woods,
the three navy b%alloonists. Lieuts.
Farrell. Hinton and kloor, arrived
here. Lieut.. Farrell told the following
story of their adventures:
Lieut.. Farrell's story of the digit
and wanderings Of the trio begins with
the morning hours In ROcka~ay naval
air station on December Is and goes
on through the flight. the landing, and
up to the meeting with the Indian at
Moose Factory who saved their lives.
1T a just al ordinary balloon
hop" Farrell began. III 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 nac up at about TWEEN
ty minutes to Il December l3) and
told me l coula ..,ome on flight il l
wanted to. No special orders are
needed. We Just got permission frcm
Commander Cummings Of the post
and Executive Officer Douglas.
Il am senior officer OF the three.
but KloOr was In command OF the
flight, as he Is q balloon officer and !
am q gunnery officer. ! have been In
aviation for three years and have
flown in every kind Of aircraft. We
left at l p. m.
Left With Four Pigeons.
1--WE had four pigeons; we let the
frst one go with a message for the
Brooklyn navy yard.
Hinton and KlOor had heavy un-
derwear and uniforms under their n.y.
ing suits. l had only the underwear
and the flying suit. l had a grip with
my uniform and some other things In
1t. We had eight sandwiches and two
thermos bottles Of hot coffee. None
Of the underwear was electrically
heated.
1--WE expected to land next morn
ing in upper New York state. We had
no maps or charts except q 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 a tree near a
light. 1t was in a window OF a farm
house. A man came along and we
asked him where we we're. He told
us, but he could not say what big town
we were lear.
kloor Game to Go On.
I'VE cast loose and wen up again.
It rained and blew during the night.
We could have landed at Ottawa at
IL p. m. We saw the lights Of a big
city. But KlOor is just a kid and he
was enthusiastic about a long flight.
We all agreed that we ought to do d
decent flight. There had been rain
from Wells on.
1.-The wind was north by west. That
night 1t blew hard and rained. There
was no sign of civilization. But we
thought It would be all right In the
morning. At daylight we saw only for
ests. The rain had Gained down.
There were low clouds and fog.
1.-The rain stopped at 8 a. IN. Ode
cember 14). We ate all our food dur
Ing the night. We had two packages
OF cigarettes and one box Of matches,
but you cannot smoke in a hydrogen
balloon. We realized we were in bad
that morning"
Explains Flying Technique.
Here Farrell paused to give a brief
explanation Of the technique of bal
loon flying.
You have a lot Of dependable bal
last" he said. 1--WE had twenty-one
sandbags weighing thirty pounds
apiece. At first the balloon rises with
all the cargo. Then it begins coming
down as the gas deteriOrates. When
you are down toe low you throw out a
sandbag and that sends you up again.
"When all the ballast is gone you
60 up for the last time and have to
come down as soon as the gas begins
to weaken.
"Our twenty-first bag went over that
morning. After that we had to throw
out equipment to keep up. We hauled
In the drag rope which Is used In
making landings and cut 1t into sew
cral pieces. We used each piece as
ballast. It was not very long before
the last niece went over the side. =
At IL q. M. the sun came out and
heated up the gas In the balloon !:
that makes the gas expand and sends
the balloon up.
1--WE were fighting to keep In the
ar. All We saw was trees. lakes. and
snow. It was about 1:30 p. m. that
We raw a shack in the woods. At
least We thought 1t was q shack. We