Elbert County tribune and Elbert County banner., 1921-01-21
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 Dense
Woods and Were on Verge of Death
When Reseued-ThriIling Story of
Trip Told by an officer.

naval officers, Lieuts. Hinton, Farrell
and Kloor, 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 flight
and wanderings of the trio begins with
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.
"lt 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 u December 13) and
told me | could come on flight If l
wanted to. No 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 Kloor was in command of the
flight, as he is balloon officer and
am gunnery officer. / have been in
aviation for three years and have
Lown in every kind of aircraft. We
left at l p. m.
Left With Four Pigeons.
1--WE had four pigeons; we let the
first one 20 with n message for the
Brooklyn navy yard.
Hinton and Kloor had heavy un-
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
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 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 tree near n
light. 1t was in window of farm
house. 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.
1t rained and blew during the night
We could have landed at Ottawa at
IL p. m. We saw the lights of big
city. But Kloor is just a kid and he
was enthusiastic about a long flight.
We all agreed that we ought to do
decent flight. There had been rain
from Wells on.
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 calmed down
There were low clouds and fog.
The rain stopped at a. m (De-
cemoer 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 hydrogen
balloon. We realized we were In bad
that morning."
At IL a. m. the sun came out and
heated up the gas in the balloon;
that makes the gas expand and sends
the balloon up.
I'VE were fighting to keep In the
air All we saw was trees, lakes, and
snow. 1t was about l 80 p. IN. that
we saw a shack In the woods. At
least we thought it was shack. We
were in doubt about this until we
henrd a dog bark.
'I took bearings with the compass
on the shack and the place where the
dog barked. We decided to land. We
were 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 90 up. We reached
$500 feet. 1t takes long time to go
from that height.
Make Bad Landing.
THE clouds we're below us and
above us. We got down about two
O'Clock 1t was bad landing and we
were pretty badly shaken up. We
were not hurt or thrown out, but the
basket was smashed against the
ground.
The balloon caught between the
trees. We had ttten the pigeons into
the basket TO protect them from the
landing Usually they ride in cage
tied outside of the basket The wealth
er was clear and nearly freezing.
IAN three of us stepped out of the
basket in our flying clothes. l took
the grip. We were soaking wet. kloor
took the pigeon cage. We started on
at terrific pace to get where the
dog barked We did not stop to in
spect the balloon. From the bearings
/ took in the balloon we figured the