The St. Mary banner., 1921-01-22
THRILLING STORY OF BALLOON TRIP
Lieut. Farrell Gives Account of the Adventures OF the naval
BaIoonists Who Were Lost in the Wilds OF Canada
Were Lost to the World for 20 Days
Death Near When Rescued.

and wanderings of the trio begins witt
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
ut was just an ordinary balloon
hc7," Farrell began. ut was for train-
ing. Linton told me after we leAs
that lhe gas in the balloon WIS ten
days old, stale and impu e.
"Hinto called me up at .4boLt twel-
ty minutes to II December 1a) and
told me l could come On fight g J
: anted to 20 special orders ere
edtd. We just cot permission ~rc&
CcnIa4Ger Cummings 8. ,ne Gcst
an1 Execusiye Cfic3c Douglas.
@+ an cenio~ Offices o. t5le thTee,
l~t klnO9 ,rGJ N command Of the
fiigh,, as Ee i3 j Balloon ofAcer and l
ar { gunnerT officer. I have been Ii
aviation Tor three years and have
1can IN evprE Kind oG aircraft. We
-cf, Ct D. IN.
.e.t Wigh Four Pigeons.
E,'n nad souf pigeons; we ict the
lrst cAe 50 with q message for the
&.gook.,a navy YARD.
clinton and KIoDr had heavy IN
lerwpar and uniforms under their fly
.nE suits. I had only the underwear
md ihn aging suit had grip with
mr urifCrm nntl some other things lii
1t. ETe had eight sandwiches and TWO
.aecmos bottles Of hot coffee. None
Of tie underwear was electrically
i.sated.
We expected 10 land next morn
.ng IL UPPER New YORK state. We had
no maps or charts except railroad
map Of the Canadian Quebec Central
Inc. which I bought. We had three
chances to land before we did. We Gi1
step once st Wells, y. Y.
We made fast to tree near
'ight Il Was In window Of farm
house. 4 man came along and we
GskeC MIN where we were. He told
as but he could not say what big town
~T9 were ncar.
r.loey Came to Go en-.
= "a. Loose cad went up again.
!. rained AID blew daring the night.
W ccllL have raadeC a. Ottawa at
z :. we ffw me lights OF O big
'ity 3It --loCr is yu51 c hid and lie
''cs .thu~las ic Cholt a 1oHg flight.
We a., ag eed Il at W orrht &c DO G
dc cclt 4i-ht. The lad b2eN lain
-rC n .,ells on.
''I4-e .nu va Torth by est. that
li~h+ / ble-y Lard AM raine]. There
IS n S gn e evil zatIon. 3u we
hou hit 'ould be al rig. in he
.orr ng At day. ght -aw only CI.
SITS. The IN h d tllmed dow !.
I ere were low ooud and fog.
"TT rain st pp, ] at } ~ q =
ce Der l., W ate all ou~ food dur
ing tie night. We had two r ckages
of ciga "ttes ] one box of matches,
aut ou cannot smoke in hydr zen
balloon. We rt liz~d ew re In bad
that corning"
Explain Flying Tecl iique.
Here Farrell paused give brief
explanation Of the technique bal
looE flying
You have 9 lot Of sf endable bal
last" he said. 1--WE tad twenty-one
sandbags weighing thirty pounds
apiece. At first the ball N rises with
all the cargo. Then it 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-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 it into sew
eral pieces. We used each piece as
ballast. 1t was not very long before
the last piece went over the side.
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.
1--WE were fighting to keep In the
air. All we saw was trees, lakes, and
snow. 1t was about l 80 p. m. that
we saw q shack in the woods. At
least we thought 1t was shack. We
were in dohbt about this until we
heard a dog bark.
II 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 fe%t
high. The wind was north by wes..,
the sun had been heating up our bag
nnS ,x,a toror - ~ ,,v VVo roo chod