Marble Hill press., 1921-01-20
OFFICER TELLS
Of BALLOON TRIP
Naval officers Lost 10 the World
Tor Twenty-Five Days.
ARE FOUND BY AN INDIAN
Wandered -Four Days In the Dense
Woods and Were on Verge Of Death
When Rssevse-Thnilins Story Of
Trip Told BY an of',esr.

naval officers. l.iruis. Hinton. Farrell
and hluur Who abandoned their
wrecked balloon near Moose Factory
OF IA. shore OF James bay on lice.
II. arrived safely here. The follow.
Ing story Of the balloon trip of the
AlFmen MAS told by Lieut.. stephen
Farrell:
Lieut. farr-ll's story ot the nighi
and Nahderings Of the trio begins with
the morning hours IN RockaNHy naval
air station ou prormhrF ~ aud goes
OF through the iiieht. the landing. aud
up 10 the meeting with the Indian at
Moose Factory Who saved their lives.
1t NHs Just an ordinary balloon
hop" FARRELL began III was for train.
ing Hinton told me after We left
that the gHs 10 the balloon vas ten
day old, stale and impure.
Hinton called m- ~ at about twcn.
~ minutes to ~ (prccmher ial and
told ms | could come on tileht II
waited to, No special orders are
needed We just got permission from
Commander Cummings Of the post
hnd Executive Ofic-r Douglas
Il Hm senior officer - the three.
hut klo0t Was In command ~ the
flight. Hs hs Is a balloon officer and |
hiu n eunnery officer have been In
svintion for three years and have
flown In every Kind Of aircraft. We
left nj ! .. IN.
Left With -Four Pigeons
-we had four pigeons: We le, the
first one 20 with message for the
Brooklyn navy yard.
Hinton and Kloor had heavy un.
derwear and uniforms under their ily.
Ing suits. ! had only the underwear
and the rying suit. ! had a grip with
my uniform and some other things in
II. We had eight sandwiches and two
thsrmos bottles Of hot coffee. None
OF the underwear was electrically
heated.
We expected 20 land next morn.
Ing In upper New York state We had
no maps or charts except a railroad
map Of the Canadian Quebec Central
line, which ] bought We had three
chances 10 land before we did. We did
stop once az Wells. y. Y.
We made fast 10 tree near a
light II 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 we're near.
kloor Game TO Go On.
I'VE cast loose and went up again.
II rained aud blew during the night.
We could have landed at Ottawa at |
ii .. IN We saw the lights Of a big
city. But Kloor Is just a kid and he
was enthusiastic about a long flight.
"" all agreed that We ought TO do a
decent flight There had Teen rain
from Wells on.
The wind was north by west That
night Il blew hard and ralned. 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.
'The rain stopped at 8 a. m. (De-
cember i4). We ate all our food dur
ine the night. We had two packages
Of cigarettes and one box OF matches,
but you cnnnot smoke in q hydrogen
balloon. We realized we were In bad
that morning"
At II 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 we're fighting to keep in the
Dir. All we saw was trees, lakes. and
snow. II was about 80 p, m. that
We saw shack In the woods At
east we thought II was a shack. We
we're In doubt about this until we
heard a dog bark.
II took bearings with the compass
m the shack and the place where the
log barked. We decided TO land. We
we're in low clouds about 1000 feet
Ugh. The wind was north by west,
he sun had been heating up our bag
ind We began To go up. We reached
1900 feet II takes long time TO go
rom that height.
Make . Bad Landing.
''The clouds were below us and
bove us. We got down about two /
'clock. II was bad landing and we
sere pretty badly shaken up We
we're not hurt or thrown out. but the {
'asket was smashed against the I
round. =
''The balloon caught between the b
rees We had taken the pigeons into
he basket to protect them from the
nnding. Usually they ride In n cage ;,
led outside Of the basket. The wearh- :,
r was clear and nearly freezing.
"All three OF us stepped out Of rne :,
asket In our flying clothes. I took =
he grip. We were soaking wet. Kloor
ook the pigeon cage. We started of i.
I terrific pace to get where the n
og barked. we did not stop to In :
pect the balloon. From the BEARINGS Is
took IN the balloon we figured the q
or 10 be south By east from US. =
Start on long Trek. 81