Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1921-01-22
OFFICER TELLS
Of BALLOON TRIP
Naval Officers Lost to the World
for Twenty-Five Days.
ARE FOUND By AN INDIAN
Wandered Four Days In the Oense
Woods and Were on Verge OF Oeath
When Rescued-Thrillino Story OF
Trip Told by an Ohicer.

/
naval officers, Lieuts. Hinton. Fhrre"
and KIoor. who abandoned their
wrecked balloon near Moose Factory
on the shore Of james bay on Dec
ID arrived safely here. The follow
ing story Of the balloon trip OF the
aIrmen was told by Lieut.. stephen
! Farrell:
Lieut.. Farrells story Of the night
and wandcrings Of the trio begins WIN
the morning hours in Rockaway naval
mir station on December - and goes
on through the flight, the landing. ana
m TO the meeting with the Indian nj
Moose Factory who saved their IVES
ut was Just an ordinary balloon
hon" Farrell began. 1T was for train
ing. Hinton told me after we leH
that the gas in the balloon was ten
days old. stale and impure.
Hinton called me up at about TWEEN
" minutes to L. Decemher l3) ana
told me | could come on flight II
wanted to. M special orders are
needed. We just got permission from
Commander Cummings of the post
and Executive officer Douglas.
81 am senior officer Of the three,
but Kluor was I'm command of the
flight, as he Is Il balloon officer and l
am gunncry officer. have been In
aviation for three years and have
flown I'm every kind of aircraft. We
left at l p. IN.
Left With Four Pigeons.
1--WE had four pigeons; we let the
first one go with a 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. l had grip with
my uniform and some other things In
It, 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 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.
1--WE made fast to a tree near a
! light 1t was In a window of 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 up again.
II rained and blew during the night.
We could have landed at Ottawa at
IL D. m. We saw the lights of a big
city. But KloOr Is just kid and he
was enthusiastic about long flight
We all agreed that we ought to do a
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 II 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 a. m. De
cember AZ. We ate all our food dur
Ing the night. We had two package:
Of cigarettes and one box Of matches
but you cannot smoke in hydrogen
balloon. We realized we we're in baC
that morning."
At ii a. m. the sun came out ant
heated up the gas in the balloon
that makes the gas expand and send
the balloon up.
I'VE were fighting TO keep in tn
ctr. All we saw was trees. lakes, ant
we saw a shack In the woods. A
least we thought II was a shack. W.
were in doubt about this until W
heard a dog bark.
II took bearings with the compass
on the shack and the place where tn
dog barked. We decided TO land. w
were in low clouds about 1000 fee
high. The wind was north by west
the sun had been heating up our ba
and We began to go up. We reache
$500 feet. 1t takes a long time to &
from that height.
Make a Bad Landing.
The clouds were below us an
above us. We got down about tw
o'clock. II was bad landing and W
were pretty badly shaken up. W
were not hurt or thrown out. but tn
basket was smashed against tn
ground.
THE balloon caught between I'll
trees. We had taken the pigeons int
the basket to protect them from III
landing. Usually they ride in Gag
tied outside of the basket The weatl
er was clear and nearly freezing.
"All three of us stepped out Of tn
basket in our flying clothes. l too
the grip. We were soaking wet. KlOC
took the pigeon cage. We started o
at n terrific pace to get where II
dog barked. We did not stop to Il
spect the balloon. From the bearin,
I took I'm the balloon we figured II
dog TO be south by east from us.
Start on Long Trek.
I'VE started through the forest
that line. | carried my grip for OF