Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1921-01-21
THRILLING STORY OF BALLOON TRIP
Lieut. Farrell Gives Account of the Adventures Of the Naval
Baloonists Who We're Lost in the Wilds OF Canada
Were Lost to the World for 29 Days
Z Death Near When Rescued. 'sa 81, Fl

the morning hours In Rockaway naval
air station on December 13 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. 1T 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 twen-
ty minutes TO II (December 13) and
told me Il 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 o gunnery officer. / have been an
aviation for three years and have
flown In every kind Of aircraft. We
left at p. m.
Left With Four Pigeons. "a.
"We had four pigeons: we let the
first one go with message for the
Brooklyn navy yard.
| Hinton and kloor had heavy un-
derwear apd uniforms under their n.y.
ing suits. had only the underwear
and the flying suit. had 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.
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 / bought. We had three
chances to land before we did. We did
|. stop once at Wells, N. Y. i'
I'VE made fast to a tree near
light 1t was in window OF farm
house, a man came aleEg ssssl rwe
asked him where we were. He told
us, but he could not say what big town
we were near.
Kloor Game to Go On.
"We cast loose and went up again.
1t rained and blew during the night.
We could have landed at Ottawa at
IL p. mr. We saw the lights of big
city. But Kioor is just kid and he
was enthusiastic about long flight.
We alI agreed that we ought to do
decent flight. There had been rain
from Wells on.
A''The wind was north by west. That
night 1t blew hard and rained There
was no sign of civilization. But. we
thought 1t 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.
"The rain stopped at 8 a. m. (De-
cember 14). 1--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 hydrogen
balloon. We realized we we're in bad
that morning." ~.
Explains Flying Technique.
Here Farrell paused to give brief
explanation Of the technique of bal
loon flying. m .asy
You have a lot OF expendable bal
last, he said. 1--WE had twenty-one
sandbags weighing thirty pounds
apiece. AT first the balloon rises with
all the cargo. Then 1t begins coming
down as the gas deteriorates. When
you are down too low You throw out
sandbag and that sends you up again.
"When, all the ballast is gone you
go up for the last time and have to
come down as soon as the gas begins
to weaken. ti'ta,siit "a
"Our twenty-frst 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 It into sew
eral pieces. We, used each. piece as
ballast, 1t was not very long before
the last piece went over the side.
at. IL, a. m, the sun came out and I.
heated up the gas In the balloon; !,
that makes the gas expand and sends
the balloon up. ass'r's'f h sA' Fl r''.y f.kn
I'VE were fighting to keep in the
air. 4 All we saw was trees lakes and
snow. It was about, $50 p, m. that
we saw q shack In, the woods. AT
least we thought 1t was a. shack. We
were in doubt about this until we .
heard a dog bark. ~
II took bearings with the compass
on the shack and fhe place where the
dog barked. We decided to land, We
we're In low clouds about 1000 feet
high. The wind was north by west,
the sun had been heating up our bag
and we began to go up. We reached
$500 feet It takes long time te.g0
from that height.
n aaalss = uad LaMdl~o. =
yThe clouds were below NJ and
above us We got down about two
oarioek. K vas bad landing and ~
sen prefty bedly ahaken ~. We