Year: 1874

AAhAAVUS bALAUUN VUYAGEs

 The Missing French Aeronauts saved-. Narrow Escape from Destruction.

 The recent balloon voyage of M

 Duruof and his wife proves to have

 been one of the most perilous recorded

 Tn the history of aerial navigation

 The daring aeronauts left Calais or

 Monday evening, and were not heard ot

 until the Friday following, when they

 were landed ct Grimsby, on the east

 coast of England, from fishing smack

 The dangers which befell them in the

 meantime are thus described by M

 Duruof himself:

 At 7:55 P. M. on Monday, being anx

 ious that the ascent should not be put

 oH to the following day, and fearing

 that we should have the same weather,

 and so be obliged to put off the ascent

 second time, l took advantage of the

 south wind to attempt to go in the air,

 under the pretext of having 8 captive

 ascent merely but resolved to avail

 myself of this wind, which was to have

 taken us to England. My wife being

 with me, and all being ready, I told the

 people who were holding the rope of

 the balloon to let go, and I at the same time let go the hand of 8 soldier, there

 being twenty-five soldiers in attendance upon me. The balloon went up amid the acclamations of the crowd, and for ths space of 330 yards went in north er1y direction but, upon obtaining that height, our course changed to the northeast, and shortly afterward we saw the French and English lighthouses at sea, and we seemed to be going more towards England than toward France. There were no vessels to be seen at sea, and night was coming on. I felt that m that case should be obliged to make long voyage, and must econo- mlze my ballast, and decided to pass the night watching the extremity of the rope, v yards long, and every time it touched the water threw out very small quantity of ballast. At A. M., Just before sunrise. I threw all tho light ballast out, and I discovered that dur ing the night I had been driven in a north -easterly direction. Not knowing the distance I was from the nearest land, and fearful of being driven by another current to the northward, I resolved to try to lower myself to ves- sel. perceived many of all sizes be- low me, being then mile high. I ma- noeuvered so as to get down, and toward 5 o'clock I succeeded. The lower cur rent of the wind was blowing north west. It is impossible to describe my extreme thirst and my poor wife, whom l tried to console by telling her that we were going in the right direc- ton, did not lose courage. showed her two vessels in the direction we were falling, and I made her understand that we were trying to get stopped by one of them.

 Of the eight bags of ballast I had taken with me I had only discharged three, and ] should have been able, if needful, to continue my journey for l3 or IA hours. I noticed that the smallest of the vessels, a fishing smack, manoeu- vered and tried to cross my path. The sea was very rough indeed. Without any fear, l opened the valve and de- scended until the ropes were trailing in the water, and in al instant we were past the vessel. The crew of the smack, however, launched their small boat, and two men rowed it toward us. It was then o'clock, and seeing the good will of the fishermen to come to help us, resolved 10 stop tue speed of the balloon by springing the valve until the car filed with water, and thus would give more resistance to the pro- gross of the balloon. However, when I turned round I could not see the vessel. From time to time tremendous waves broke upon the balloon, covering us with water, but still the balloon resist ed, and my fear then was that the bal oou might burst, in which case we should assuredly have been lost. At ) clock we again sighted the smack on 'he horizon, and saw that she was pur- suing us, and by degrees we noticed hat she came closer to us. The cold was very severe, and our limbs were be- coming benumbed :; our strength was failing us, and the hope of being over- taken by the smack was the only thing hat gave strength to our arms to hold on. My wife's limbs were benumbed, and at each jerk of the balloon she be- came weaker and weaker. The smack continued to approach us, and was now within $50 yards. I pointed it out to ny wife, and that renewed her courage. What was more trying was being obliged to hold her in my arms. The snack was then very near us, and I :aised myself on the ropes and saluted our sailors. They saw us, and launched heir boat, being only 200 yards ahead ,f us. The small boat was manned by he master (Wm. Oxley) and the mate. They came nearer to the car and took lold of the rope. At this time their boat was nearly sinking on account of he strong jerks of the balloon, but hey did not lose courage, and, taking lold of my wife's hand, who was like corpse, they dragged her as best they ,ould into their boat. I saw the dan ger they were in, and I began to cut 'he ropes that were following the bal oon. l had cut the greater part of hem when I was dashed against the boat, and let myself fall into it. I, ike my wife, lay helpless at the bottom of the boat. The men let go the ropes of the car, and the balloon rushed off with mighty speed toward Norway. The boat returned to the smack, and we were put on board and taken into the cabin, where good fire did not fail to bring us round. We have only to ex- press our thanks to the men for the ,are and kindness those good sailors showed to us during the voyage to