The Holbrook news., 1921-01-21
NAVAL AIRMAN
 TELLS OF TRIP
Thrilling Story of the Adventure of the BaIIoonists Who Were
 Lost in WiIds of Canada.
DEATH NEAR WHEN RESCUED
Lost to the World 2s Days In AII- Wandered Four Days In the Woods With Nothing to Feat Except the
 Pigeons They Had With Them.

Mattice, Ont.-After being lost to the world for % 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.. Farrell's 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.
 ''It was just an ordinary balloon hop" Farrell began. Tt 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 12 December 13) and told me I could come on flight If wanted to. No special orders are needed. We just got permission from Commander Cummings of the post and Executive Officer Douglas.
 'I am senior officer Of the three, but KlOOr was in command of the flight, as he is a balloon officer and am a gunnery officer. 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.
 "We had four pigeons; we let the first one go with a message for the Brooklyn navy yard.
 Hinton and KIoor had heavy un- derwear and uniforms under their fly ing suits. I had only the underwear !. and the flying suit. I had 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.
 "We expected to 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 I bought. We had three chances to land before we did. We did stop once at Wells, N. '.
 "We made fast to a tree near a light. It was in a window of a 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.
 Kloor Game to GO On.
 "We cast loose and went up again. | It rained and blew during the night. | We could have landed at Ottawa at | Il p. m. We saw the lights of a big | city. But KlOOr Is just kid and he was enthusiastic about a long flight. | We all agreed that we ought to. do a 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. CDe- 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 a hydrogen balloon. We realized we were In bad that morning."
 Explains Flying Technique.
 Here Farrell paused to give a brief explanation of the technique of bal loon flying.
 You have a lot of expendable bal last" he said "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 a 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.
 Our twenty-irst 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 sev- eral pieces. We used each piece as ballast. It was not very long before the last piece went over the side.
 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.
 ''We were fighting to keep in the air. All we saw was trees, lakes, and snow. It was about 80 D. m. that we saw a shack in the woods. At least we thought 1t was shack. We