The Colorado statesman., 1921-01-22
NAVAL AIRMAN
TELLS OF TRIP
Thrilling Story Of the Adventure
OF the BalIoonists Who Were
Lost in WiIds of Canada.
DEATH NEAR WHEN RESCUED
Lost to the World 90 Days In ALL
Wandered Four Days In the Woods
With Nothing to Eeat Except the
Pigeons They Had With Them.

Pigeons They Had With Them.
Mattice, Ont.-After being lost to
the world for 20 days, four of which
were spent wandering In the woods.
the three navy balloonists, Lieuts.
Farrell, Hinton and Kloor, arrived
here. Lieut.. Farrell told the following
story of their adventures:
Lieut.. Farrells story of the flight
and wanderlngs Of the trio begins with
the morning hours In Rockaway naval
air station on December 10 and goes
on through the flight, the landing, and
up to the meeting with the Indian at
Moose Factory who saved their lives.
ut was just an ordinary balloon
hop" Farrell began. at 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 1 could come ON flight If i
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 a balloon officer and l
am a gunnery officer. l have been in
aviation for three years and have
flown in every kind of aircraft. We
left at 1 p. m.
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. Khad a 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 1 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
light. 1t was In 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.
1t rained and blew during the night.
We could have landed at Ottawa at
IL D. m. We saw the lights of big
city. But Kloor is just 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.
1.-The wind was north by west. That
night it 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. m. 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 hydrogen
balloon. We realized we were In bad
that morning."
Explains Flying Technique.
Here Farrell paused to give brief
exclamation of the technique of bal
loon flying.
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
20 M 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
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 ana
heated up the gas in the balloon
that makes the gas expand and senos
the balloon up
1--WE were fighting to keep In the
air All we saw was trees, lakes, ana
snow. 1t was about 1 80 p. m. that
we saw a shack in the woods. AT
-. 49,. tboupht II was q shack. we