Year: 1874

Narrow Escape from Destruction.


The recent balloon voyage of M.
Duruof and his wife proves to have been
one of the most perilous recorded in the
history of aerial navigation. The daring
eronants left Calais on Monday evening,
the 3lst ult., and were not heard of until
the Friday following, when they were
landed at Grimsby, on the east coast OF
England, from a fishing smack. The
dangers which befel them in the mean
time are thus described by M. Duruoi
himself:


At 7:55 p. M, on Monday, August 81
being anxious that the ascent should not
be put of to the following day, and fear
! ing that we should have the same weather,
and SO be obliged to put off the ascent a
second time, l took advantage of the
south wind 10 attempt to go in the air,
under the pretext of fhaving captive as
cent merely but / resolved to avail my
self of this wind. which was to have taken
us to England. My wife being with me,
and all being ready, told the people
who were holding the rope of the balloon
to let go, and at the same time let 60
the hand of soldier, there being twenty
five soldiers in attendance upon me. The
balloon went up aimd the acclamations of
the crowd, and for the space of $50 yards
went in northerly direction but upon
obtaining that height our course changed
to the northeast, and shortly afterward
we saw the French and English light
houses at sea, and we seemed to be going
more towar France. There were no
vessels to be seen at sea, and night was
coming on. / felt that in that case l
should be obi ged to make long voyage,
and must ecOnomize my ballast, and |
decided to pass the night watching the
extremity of the rope, n yards long, and
every time it touched the water threw
out very small quantity OF ballast. At
a. M, Just before sunrise, threw all
the light ballast out, and l discovered
that during the night I had been driven
in northeasterly direction. Not know
ing the distance was from the nearest
land, and fearful of being driven by
another current to the northward, L re-
solved to try to lower myself to vessel.
/ perceived many of all sizes below me,
being then mile high. / maneuvered
so as to get down, and toward o'clock l
succeeded. The lower current of the
wind was blowing northwest. 1t is i'm
possible to describe my extreme thirst (;
and my poor wife, whom l tried to con-
sole by telling her that we were going in
the right direction, did not lose courage.
showed her two vessels in the direction
we were falling, and / made her under
stand that we were trying to get stopped
by one of them. OF the eight bags of
ballast had taken with me had only
discharged three, and should have been
able, if needful, to continue my journey
for thirteen or fourteen hours. l noticed
that the smallest of the vessels, fishing
smack, maneuvered and tried to cross my
path. The sea was very rough indeed.
Without any fear opened the valve and
descended until the ropes were trailing
in the water, and in an instant we were
past the vessel. The crew of the smack,
however, launched their small boat, and
two men rowed it toward us. 1t was then
o'clock, and, seeing the good will of
the fishermen to come to help us, l re-
solved to stop the speed of the balloon by
springing the valve until the car filled
with water, and thus would give more re-
sistance to the progress of the balloon.
However, when turned round l could
not see the vessel. From time to time
trememendous waves broke upon the bal
loon, covering us with water, but still the
balloon resisted, and my fear then was
that the balloon might burst, in which
case we should assuredly have been lost.
At o'clock we again sighted the smack
on the horizon, and saw she was pursuing
us, and by degrees we noticed that she
came closer to us. The cold was very
severe, and our limbs were becoming be-
numbed our strength was failing us, and
the hope of being overtaken by the smack
was the only thing that gave strength to
our arms to hold on. My wife's limbs
were benumbed, and at each jerk of the
balloon she became weaker. The smack
continued to approach us, and was now
within five hundred and fifty yards. l
pointed it out to my wife, and that re-
newed her courage. What was more
trying was being obliged to hold her in
my arms. The smack was then very near
us, and l raised myself on the ropes and
saluted our sailors. They saw us, and
launched their boat, being about two
hundred yards ahSad of u.s. The small
boat was manned by the master VIM.
Oxley. and the mate. They came nearer
to the car and took hold of the rope. AT
this time their boat was nearly sinking
on account of the strong jerks of the bal
loon, but they did not lose courage, and,
taking hold of my wife's hand, who was
like corpse, they dragged her as best
they could into their boat. / saw the
danger they were in, and | began to cut
the ropes that were following the balloon
1had cut the greater part of them when
was dashed against the boat, and letmysell
fall into it. /, like my wife, lay helpless
at the bottom of the boat. The men lei
go the ropes of the car, and the balloon
rushed off at mighty speed toward Nor
way. The boat returned to the smack
and we were put on board and taken into
the cabin, where good fire did not fai
to bring us round. We have only to ex
press our thanks to the men for The care
and kindness those good sailors showed
to us during the voyage to Grimsby
which lasted until 9 q. m. this morning