Chapter 21 - 1933
THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE CHICAGO EXPOSITION
5 Nations Seek World Balloon Race Cup Today – 7 Bags
Ready in Chicago for Bennett Trophy Event, Drift to Be Southeasterly –
World Air Meet Starts – Hawks Wins Triangular Flight from Pacific Coast
– By the AP – Curtiss-Wright-Reynolds Airport, CHICAGO, Friday,
September 1
Seven balloonists, the pick of five nations, all eager to
achieve a new distance record, tonight were ready for their annual
classic, the James Gordon Bennett races, starting tomorrow.
Government weather forecasters said there would be no
unfavorable conditions and that the drift of the balloons in their
contest for distance in any direction would be to the east and south.
The start of the race is scheduled for 3 pm (CST)
tomorrow. Officials of the international air races, in conjunction with
which the balloon contest is being held, meanwhile started their program
of speed plane events.
Forecasters said they would be unable to compute probable
wind velocities at various altitudes until a few hours before the race.
A distance of 800 miles with a landing in about 24 hours would be
“average” for the event.
Race officials said they would depend upon reports from
residents over the wide territory to the southeast to keep in touch with
the progress of the bags. Contrary to the custom in previous years no
arrangements were made for pilots and their assistants to drop out
messages at short distances, instructing the finders of the notes to
communicate with race headquarters.
[Gehlbach win Feature Race
Lee Gehlbach, of Detroit, flying a Wedell-Williams
special, won the $2000 free for all for planes of 1000 cubic inches
piston displacement with a speed of 199.14 miles an hour, in the feature
race.
Lieutenant Commander Frank M Hawks brought his metal
racing plane down on the airport at 2:27 pm to finish a triangular
flight for which Los Angeles and Seattle served as pylons. Leaving
Chicago at 1 am Wednesday, Hawk’s flying time was twenty–four hours and
twenty-five minutes.]
All of the balloons were on the airfield. Inflation with
hydrogen gas was scheduled to start tonight.
Leading the list of contestants was Lieutenant Commander
T.G.W. Settle, who brought this Gordon Bennett race to America by
winning the 1932 event at Basel, Switzerland. The other American entry,
the Goodyear IX, will be piloted by Ward T Van Orman, leading balloonist
for more than a decade and competitor for the James Gordon Bennett
Trophy nearly every year of its career [since they resumed post World
War I].
Van Orman’s balloon will be the first to leave the
ground, followed by Philippe Quersin of Belgium, five minutes later.
Then Settle will take off, followed by Dr Erich Koerner and Fritz von
Opel in Germany’s two balloons. Franciszek Hynek next will take the
Polish balloon off the ground. The last and most favorable position in
the takeoff order has been drawn by Georges Ravaine, pilot of France’s
entry.
Goodyear IX Leads Balloons in World Race – Six Take Off
at Chicago in Northeasterly Wind Threatening Thunderstorms – By the AP –
Curtiss-Wright-Reynolds Airport, Chicago, Saturday, September 2 –
The 1933 International James Gordon Bennett balloon race,
classic marathon for lighter-than-air craft, got under way tonight with
a brisk wind blowing a threat of thunderstorms against the field,
reduced to six by withdrawal of one German entry.
The first balloon to take off was the Goodyear IX,
piloted by Ward T. Van Orman, veteran of fifteen years of free
ballooning. It left the field at 5:04 pm (CST) and floated away to the
northeast.
Hundreds of spectators at the international air races
cheered as Van Orman and his assistant, Frank N. Trotter, swung up
toward a space flecked with white clouds.
Clouds Threaten Showers
In every other direction were banks of dark clouds. In
them, contest officials said, lay the danger of showers and
thunderstorms.
The other balloons were brought by their ground crews to
a point before the grandstands for release at intervals which gave each
envelope sufficient time to get clear of the field before another took
the air.
Because of their desire to carry all possible ballast,
the pilots had considerable trouble getting their crafts off the ground.
The basket of Van Orman’s balloon skidded along the ground for some time
before swinging clear.
The entry list for the classic was reduced by one balloon
shortly before the takeoff when the Wilhelm von Opel, German entry,
broke loose from its moorings, tore a section of fabric from its bottom
and left its pilot, Fritz von Opel, without a craft. The balloon had
been completely inflated and its lifting power apparently was greater
than the weight of the sand bags that were holding it to the ground. No
one was injured. The balloon rose to about 100 feet, then fluttered to
earth as the hydrogen escaped from the rent at the bottom.
Takes Bad Luck With Grin
Von Opel took his bad luck with good humor.
“It’s a great business,” he said. “Half a year to get
ready and you lose in two seconds.”
Germany’s colors were carried in the race, however, by
another balloon, “The Deutschland,” piloted by Dr Erich Koerner.
Contest officials expected the last of the balloons would
come to earth far to the northeast of Chicago in about twenty-four
hours. Distance of more than 500 miles was considered probably for the
winning balloon.
Second to take off was Belgium’s yellow-colored entry,
piloted by Philippe Quersin and Martial van Schelle. The sun came out
bright as the Belgian aircraft ascended.
Next aloft was the “U.S. Navy,” piloted by Lieutenant
Commander T.G.W. (Tex) Settle, who brought the 1933 races to Chicago by
winning the 1932 event in Switzerland.
Storms Over Michigan
Settle recently attempted to fly into the stratosphere,
ten miles above the earth, in search of scientific information about the
cosmic ray. The attempt failed because of mechanical trouble. His
assistant aboard today was Lieutenant Charles H Kendall.
The other balloons which floated away to the northeast
were the Polish “Spads,” with Captain Francizek Hynek and Lieutenant
Zbigniew Burzynski; “The Deutschland,” carrying Dr Koerner and Richard
Scheutze; and France’s standard-bearer, piloted by Georges Ravaine and
Georges Blanchet.
The heavy winds which have prevailed here throughout the
day calmed somewhat at the start of the race, but storms threatening
over Michigan in the path of the contestants were a source of much
concern to officials.
Monday, September 4, 1933 NYHT -Two Balloons In Bennett
Race Forced to Land - 'No Wind,' Remarks French Pilot as Bag is Deflated
150 Miles Out of Chicago - 2 Germans Also Alight - Go Down at Kingston,
Mich., 75 Miles North of Detroit - By The Associated Press - CHICAGO,
Sunday, September 3 -
Two of the silk balloons contesting in the twenty-first
annual James Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race were down
to-night, apparently out of the race for honors. Definite reports
regarding the others were lacking.
The French entry, piloted by Georges Ravaine and his aid
Georges Blanchet, descended in a field near Homer, Mich., at 3:07 p.m.
CST. Homer is approximately 150 miles by air from Chicago.
"No Wind," was the comment of M. Ravaine.
The Deutschland, German entry in the international
balloon race, descended at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Standard time tonight in a
ditch within the village limits of Kingston, Mich., seventy-five miles
north of Detroit The crew was uninjured.
Other Balloons Reported
One bag was reported by members of the crew of the
steamship Price McKinney to have passed over the Straits of Mackinac at
10 a.m. Coast guards at Sturgeon Point, on the Lake Huron coast nearly
150 miles north of Detroit spotted another balloon this afternoon and
later came word from Edinore, Mich., fifty miles northeast of Grand
Rapids, that one of the contestants was seen there.
The balloons were flying too high to be identified. Coast
Guard headquarters here said that because of direction of the wind it
was probable the three seen were different contestants.
The Frenchmen said that they passed most of last night
drifting idly over Lake Michigan. The bag eased down and was deflated.
They planned to take it by truck to Albion, some six miles north of
their landing place.
Uncertain weather continued over the upper lakes region
today and racing officials asked that all Coast Guard stations be ready
for rescue should any of the bags be forced down in the water.
Weather Bureau officials said wind directions bore out
the pre-race expectations that the balloons would be carried north by
northeast into the sparsely settled district of Canada between the
Province of Quebec and Hudson Bay.
Wind Driftage Slight
Wind driftage over Mackinac was slight and weather over
the northern extremity of the great lakes was foggy and overcast,
indicating that balloons might be held to a low mileage record.
The cloudiness, obscuring visibility, was believed to
have prevented lake vessels from sighting any of the other craft.
The Canadian country, toward which the balloons are
believed to be drifting, is said by officials to be dangerous for a
descent since it is studded with small lakes and forests. Thunderstorms
reported from Canada added to the danger.
The United States Navy entry, piloted by Lieutenant
Commander Thomas G W Settle, who attempted the stratosphere ascent here
recently, is equipped for a water descent and the German bag
"Deutschland" carrying Dr Erich Koerner and Richard Scheutze, had a raft
aboard.
Other entries are the Goodyear IX, an American balloon,
piloted by Ward T Van Orman, three times winner of the Bennett race; the
Belgian balloon carrying Philippe Quersin and Martial van Schelle; the
Polish SP-ADS, with Captain Francizek Hynec and Lieutenant Zbigniew
Burzynski aboard and the French bag with Georges Ravaine and Georges
Blanchet.
Didn't Know They Were In U.S. ALBION, Mich., Sunday,
September 3 (AP)
A couple of French balloonists, neither of whom speaks
English, dropped out of the sky a few miles south of here this afternoon
and had difficulty even finding out what country they were in. That was
the first question asked by Georges Blanchet and Georges Ravaine, the
crew of the French balloon, Verdun, which was entered in the James
Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race. Their disappointment was
obvious when the information finally was conveyed to them that they
still were in the Unites States.
The linguistic problem of the unexpected visitors was
solved, finally, by two daughters of an Albion College professor, the
Misses Louise and Eleanor Hall. Through them it was learned that the
balloonists will entrain for New York on Tuesday with their balloon and
sail as soon as possible for France.
They figured their air mileage to Albion at 313 miles.
Other estimates here were approximately 180 miles. MM Blanchet and
Ravaine said they descended because of still air, leaking gas and signs
of an approaching storm.
"Deutschland's" Bag Ripped
KINGSTON, Mich., Sunday, September 3 - A low pressure
area which expanded the gas and ripped the bag, brought down the
Deutschland, German entry in the international balloon race, about half
a mile out of this village tonight. The big bag descended abruptly, but
the basket struck a ditch containing a foot of water, and the two
crewmen, Dr Erick Koerner and Richard Scheutz, were uninjured. The bag
piled up on a fence. The descent was at 8:15 p.m., Eastern Standard
time. -
Racing Balloon of Navy Lands in Connecticut - 3 Other
Bags Down and 2 Believed Still Aloft, 1 Sighted Over Ottawa.
The United States Navy entry in the James Gordon Bennett
International Balloon Race piloted by Lieutenant Commander Thomas G.W.
Settle, winner of last year's race, came down last night at Hotchkiss
Grove on the shore of Long Island Sound near Branford, Conn.
Easing down gently to a clearing in the heavily wooded
ground the balloon came to rest just before midnight. Commander Settle
and his aide, Lieutenant Kendall, stepped out unharmed.
Commander Settle told a crowd attracted to the scene that
he had "fine weather and a good trip." He estimated that he had been in
the air fifty-two hours since leaving Chicago.
Lieutenant Kendall remained on guard beside the balloon
while Commander Settle went into Branford Center in an automobile,
offered by one of the spectators, to telephone word of his safe landing.
The Navy balloon was one of six which left Chicago late
Saturday afternoon at the start of the race. Three others are down and
only the Goodyear IX, piloted by Ward T. Van Orman, thrice winner of the
race, and the Polish SP-ADS, with Captain Francizek Hynek and Lieutenant
Zbigniew Burzynski aboard, are unreported. Residents of Ottawa, however,
reported at midnight that they had seen a balloon, possibly one of the
Bennett race entries, drifting south over the city at such an altitude
that identifying markings could not be seen.
The three other balloons in the race already down were:
[list]
A balloon reported over Cobleskill, N.Y. just before dusk
last night and heading for the Catskill Mountains probably was Commander
Settle's entry. It was reported over Connecticut at 11 p.m. passing down
the Naugatuck Valley. Over Waterbury the balloon waved lights in answer
to ground flashes but no identifying marks could be seen because of fog.
Coast Guard Notified
The Coast Guard at New London, Conn. received word late
last night that the balloon was drifting low in a dense fog over eastern
Long Island Sound, heading southeast at an altitude of only 1,000 feet.
Lieutenant Commander Henry Coyle immediately dispatched
Patrol Boat 400 to search for her and ordered two seventy-five -footers
to keep watch for the balloon. The patrol boat was sent to Horton Point,
L.I. to cruise up the Sound in a northeasterly direction to Falkner
Island, near the harbor of Guilford, Conn., reversing the reported
course of the balloon. One of the seventy-five-footers was standing by
halfway between Falkner Island and Horton Point while another at
Greenport L.I. was keeping watch in the event that the balloon should
drop into Peconit Bay.
Commander Coyle told the boat crews to be especially
alert for flares or other signals in the sky, although it was believed
that these would be difficult to discern because of the fog.
Police at Branford said that the balloon appeared to be
losing altitude gradually but Commander Coyle said this was probably by
design of the balloonists, who might be looking for a suitable place to
come to earth. Commander Coyle thought that the balloonists might bring
down the bag at Shelter Island before being carried out to the open sea.
Two Entries Grounded Saturday
The French and German entries landed Saturday and were
reported promptly. The Belgian entry also landed Saturday, but in an
isolated spot near Higgins Lake, and the landing was not disclosed until
yesterday. Guersin and Van Schelle passed the night in the woods and
then went to Harbor Springs, Mich., to arrange to have their craft
shipped back to Brussels.
They were guests last night at the summer home of E. P.
Russell, of Chicago, near Harbor Springs. They said a leaky valve forced
them down after they had dumped ten bags of ballast.
There was a report from northwestern Michigan late
Saturday that one of the balloons was sighted drifting slowly toward the
Canadian border in the direction of the wilderness extending from the
shores of the Great Lakes beyond Hudson Bay. The unreported balloons
still may be in the race or down in some place from which communication
is difficult. -
Settle Balloon May Be Winner Of Bennett Race - Chance
Conceded on Basis of 800-Mile Flight; 2 Believed Still
Aloft - New Hampshire Sees Bag – Van Orman, of U.S., and Two
Poles Not Reported Down. – By The Associated Press - CHICAGO, Tuesday,
September 5. –
Lieutenant
Commander T.G.W. Settle, who piloted his Navy entrant 800 miles from the
starting point before landing near Brandford, Conn., was conceded an
outside chance of winning the James Gordon Bennett balloon race by
officials tonight.
Although two other racing bags - the Polish standard
bearer entered by Captain Francizek Hynek and the American civilian
balloon of Ward Van Orman - were still unheard from, the mileage
negotiated by Settle was described by officials as "exceptionally good
in view of prevailing sluggish winds."
It also compared well with mileage made by winners of
previous years, which averaged slightly under the Settle figure, it was
pointed out.
Settle brought his bag down last night, the fourth to
finish its trial. The others which have descended are the French entry,
which eased to earth Sunday on a farmer's field near Homer, Mich., about
145 miles from the starting point, the German entry at Kingston, Mich.,
about 245 miles away, and the Belgian entry which landed near Roscommon,
Mich., 275 miles away, yesterday.
Balloon Reported Sighted
MANCHESTER, N.H. Tuesday, September 5 (AP)
A balloon was reported high over this city early tonight.
It may be one of the James Gordon Bennett balloon race entries that took
off from Chicago Saturday. Authorities later sought to determine whether
the balloon had come down in this vicinity. -
Balloon Over Lake Huron Sunday
- GORE BAY, Ont., Tuesday, September 5 (CP)
Reports reached here from the south shore of Manitoulin
Island today that a balloon, believed to be one of the two missing
entries in the James Gordon Bennett race had been sighted on Sunday at
8:30 p.m. soaring over upper Lake Huron.
Ottawa Loses Track of Balloon - OTTAWA, Tuesday,
September 5. (CP) –
Despite efforts to locate balloons competing in the
international race from Chicago, no trace of a big bag seen here last
night had been found up to noon today. At midnight an unidentified
balloon was sighted high over the capital moving in a southerly
direction. It may have been one of the contestants in the race or a bag
that participated in yesterday's Labor Day program near Hull, Quebec. -
4 Feared Lost Drifting to Sea in 2 Balloons Long
Unsighted - By The Associated Press -CHICAGO, Thursday, September 7. –
Grave fears that two entrants in the international James
Gordon Bennett balloon races may have drifted out over the Atlantic
Ocean and carried four men to their deaths were expressed tonight by
officials of the race.
The Unites States Army, Navy and Coast Guard were
requested to aid in searching for the balloons, on one of which Ward T.
Van Orman, perhaps the most noted of American balloonists, was pilot.
Canadian authorities were asked to co-operate. The two balloons took off
from Curtiss-Wright Airport here at 6 p.m. on Saturday and it would have
been impossible for them to remain in the air after Wednesday noon,
according to Cliff Henderson, manager of the race. The four other
balloons in the race landed safely.
Van Orman piloted the Goodyear IX, a civilian entry with
Frank A Trotter as his aid. The other missing balloon was piloted by
Captain Francizek Hynek, with Lieutenant Zbignieu Burzynski as aid. They
are Poles.
"They intended to ascend to 25,000 feet in hunting
favorable winds, a departure in balloon contests for distance," said
Henderson. "No one could estimate the winds they might have encountered
at that height. They might have been blown far out over the Atlantic.
About the only hope is that they may have been grounded in isolated
sections of Canada or New England."
Van Orman once landed on the deck of a ship off the
French coast in a balloon race, Henderson said, but "he would not likely
be so fortunate again."
Henderson said he believed a balloon sighted on Tuesday
over New Hampshire, but unidentified because of its height, might have
been either the Polish entry or the Goodyear IX.
Each of the missing balloons carried wireless equipment
to receive weather reports, but had no sending equipment to be used in
summoning aid or reporting their position. They carried life preservers,
oxygen tanks for breathing at high altitudes, concentrated food, and
equipment to be used in making shelter and hunting wild game in remote
regions. -
Racing Balloon Seen Monday, Quebec Reports - Fishermen
Tell of Sighting Bag, One of Two Missing, Flying Low Before Storm -
Feared Down in Forest - Chicago Headquarters Believe It Is Polish Entry
- By The Associated Press - QUEBEC, Que., Friday, September 8
-
Two fishermen tonight brought word of the sighting of one
of the balloons in the James Gordon Bennett balloon race about thirteen
miles from Riviere-a-Pierre, a small village in Portneuf County.
The fishermen said they saw the bag flying very low about
7 o'clock Monday morning. Two men were in the basket and they appeared
to be throwing out ballast.
Soon after it was sighted a brief thunderstorm blew up
and they lost sight of it. Later they believed they saw it come down in
the forest a few miles away. They searched but were unable to find it.
The men, Joseph Douville and J P Morin, Quebec business
men, were fishing with a guide at Lac Bon Lac when they noticed the
balloon sailing overhead. The basket was decorated with green blue and
red squares, and it was at an altitude of thirty-five to forty feet.
The thunderstorm obscured the vision for about ten
minutes, but after it passed Morin and Douville believed they could
discern the craft three or four miles farther on, coming low over the
forest. The two travelers were separated at the time at different points
on the lake and later when they got together they found their
impressions corroborated one another. Douville and Morin thought it was
likely a balloon from the Quebec provincial exhibition which was then in
progress, but on reaching here they learned there had been no balloons
at the fair and it could only be one of the racing balloons which went
aloft at Chicago nearly a week ago.
Riviere-a-Pierre is a small village in the Laurentian
Mountains on the Canadian National Railway about sixty miles northwest
of Quebec. -
Balloon Believed Polish Entry - CHICAGO, Friday,
September 8 - (AP)
Reports from Quebec that a balloon with green, red and
blue decorations had been seen Monday by fishermen gave rise tonight to
belief that the Polish entrants in the twenty-first annual James Gordon
Bennett balloon race were safe and fighting their way back to
civilization. Authorities at race headquarters said that both the bag
and basket of the Polish balloon, manned by Captain Francizek Hynek and
Lieutenant Zbignieu Bryczinski, were splotched with those colors. Two
fishermen said they had seen a balloon with those colors on the basket
about sixty miles northwest of Quebec. The men could exist for some time
in the wilderness if they landed safely.
Cliff Henderson, managing director of the International
Air Races from which the six entrants started last Saturday, said that
searching planes would go into the district tomorrow.
Fears continued, however, for the safety of Ward T Van
Orman, pilot of the Goodyear IX and his aid Frank A Trotter. It was
feared that they may have been blown out over the Atlantic.
The missing balloons carried oxygen equipment and the
pilots planned to ascend to as high as 25,000 feet, where they would be
unable to determine their position and where high winds might have
carried them eastward beyond safety.
Seven army planes from Boston searched the New England
coast today and eight Canadian forestry planes flew over Ontario. Many
civilian planes volunteered aid.
Another search by air and water was carried on over Lake
Michigan near Chicago for an autogyro carrying three persons. Piloted by
Carl Otto, of Philadelphia and with H W "Spud" Manning, world's champion
parachute jumper, and Miss Majenta Gerard, twenty-two years old, of
River Forest, Ill., as passengers, the ship left South Bend, Ind.,
Wednesday morning for Chicago. It disappeared after starting out over
the lake. Manning was a featured performer at the international air
races last week, during which the six balloons started on the contest. -
2 Balloonists Safe in Quebec; Macon to Hunt for Americans
- By The Associated Press - RIVIERE-A-PIERRE, P.Q. Saturday, September 9
–
Exhausted and hungry from a 100-mile march to
civilization through untracked Canadian forests, the two missing Polish
entrants in the James Gordon Bennett balloon race are here tonight.
Captain Francizek Hynek and Lieutenant Zbignieu
Burzinski, brought to Riviere-a-Pierre by railroad section hands from a
point twelve miles distant, revealed they had landed in a dense forest
last Monday.
It was estimated here that the distance from Chicago,
where they started last Saturday with other race entrants, to the point
where the balloon descended, is approximately 1,000 miles on an air
line.
(At Chicago it was estimated the spot where the Polish
flyers came to earth was about the same distance from the start of the
race as Branford, Conn., where Commander T.G.W. Settle, piloting the
United States Navy entry, landed. Settle is estimated to have flown
approximately 750 miles.) [This does not add up, but see below]
The Polish
flyers apparently were suffering from fatigue and hunger, as they had
only half a dozen oranges between them for food.
They revealed that their balloon came down about ninety
miles northwest of Lemieux, Quebec. -
Macon to Seek Balloonists - WASHINGTON, Saturday,
September 9 (AP) –
The naval airship Macon tonight stood ready at Lakehurst
for a methodical search of the New England coast for the missing
American balloon Goodyear IX, unreported since it started from Chicago
in the Gordon Bennett race a week ago today.
The giant naval dirigible will search for Ward Van Orman,
veteran of many free balloon flights, and Frank A Trotter, who piloted
the Goodyear IX. -
U.S. Balloonist Found in Wilds, Ill and Hungry - Cut Down
Phone Pole to Get Repair Man as Guide in Woods of Canada - By The AP -
SUDBURY, Ont., Monday, September 11 [9 days after start]
Ward T. Van Orman
and Frank A. Trotter, James Gordon Bennett cup race balloonists missing
more than a week, were found today, ill and their clothing torn, after
they had cut down a telephone pole in the Canadian wilds to make sure
their searchers would come and get them.
They had lived on berries, suffered ptomaine poisoning,
worn through their shoes and cut their clothing to ribbons in the bush.
"I never saw two men in my life who were so glad to see
another human being," said James Barrett, lineman for the Ontario
Hydro-Electric Company, who found them. "They hollered with glee and
hugged and kissed me as soon as they saw me."
With Van Orman and Trotter found, all the Bennett Cup
racers, who took off from Chicago September 2, have been accounted for.
Apparently the winners are Captain Francizek Hynek and Lieutenant
Zbignieu Burzynski, of Poland, who landed near Riviere-a-Pierre, Quebec,
812 miles from Chicago.
The United States Navy ace, Lieutenant T.G.W. Settle,
landed near Branford, Conn., 750 miles from Chicago. Van Orman and
Trotter made about 500 miles.
Trouble with a telephone line was what led to the
discovery of the two balloonists, and they had caused the trouble for
exactly that purpose.
When Barrett, repairman, reached the cut-down pole,
between Sudbury and Abitibi Canyon in northern Ontario, he found this
note: This telephone pole was cut September 10 by U.S. Goodyear balloon
team of W.T. Van Orman and Frank Trotter in the hope that repairmen
would aid us in getting to civilization from here. We will continue
south along the high voltage line. Please come after us. We have a gun
and some food, but are both sick, evidently from ptomaine poisoning.
Fire your gun three times and we will answer. Please hurry. F.A.Trotter
Barrett forgot about the pole and continued along the
high voltage line for about five miles. In a camp at tower No 38, a
lineman's outpost, he came upon the worn-out aeronauts. Arrangements
were rushed through to get them to Sudbury as quickly as possible.
Their bag, descending from a height of about 8,000 feet
about 4 p.m. Sunday, September 3, struck a pine more than a foot in
diameter, and snapped it in two. The balloon was badly damaged.
Lost for a week in the wooded county north of here, their
clothes in tatters from the thick bush and shoes scarcely holding to
their feet, Van Orman and Trotter reached the Abitibi Canyon power line
fifty miles north of here yesterday.
Van Orman and Trotter rested in a woodcutter's camp
tonight. Both suffered a touch of ptomaine poisoning and were ill during
several days of their march through the brushy hinterland.
Patrolman William O'Neill, assistant to Barrett, left
Laforest this afternoon for the camp where the airmen were taken. He
took a first aid kit and brush cutters with him.
If the Americans are unable to walk, they will be carried
through the bush on stretchers by brawny woodsmen to the Canadian
National Railway's main line six miles away and put aboard a train for
Sudbury. But it was not known here whether such an attempt was made late
today or would be made tomorrow.
Trotter sent the following message to his wife at North
Portage Path. Akron, Ohio: "Were caught aloft in very bad squall and
forced down in latitude 81.1 west, 47.2 north by calculation. Landed in
a forest at about forty miles an hour. Balloon completely wrecked.
Pulled inside out. Landed upside down. Basket caught twenty feet off
ground, where we slept first night in the storm. Made camp, calculated
position, held up by bad weather in starting out for southwest,
searching for railroad.
Blazed trail from balloon as long as we were able. Four
miles was daily average. Speed through dense bush with packs was slow.
Van and I suffered no injuries in landing. Feet pretty
sore and Van pretty sick. Both suffered from ptomaine on the trip. Cut
telephone pole at hydro line. Barrett picked us up. Will wire again on
arriving at some place. All my love, Frank
At 5:30 today, Trotter spoke with Alex Skene over the
telephone. He and Van Orman will not come out till tomorrow. They said
they wanted to rest tonight at the camp.
"We fed on berries gathered in the bush," said Trotter,
"and we also had some pork and beans with us."
The Goodyear took a direct course over Lake Michigan at
the start, floated over the Sault Ste. Marie area and headed into a
terrific storm that raged over this district Sunday, September 3, the
day after the start.
J. J. Paul, Sudbury fisherman, and two companions
reported three days ago, on their return from Metero Lake, that they saw
the balloon tossing in the storm above the lake. It "disappeared" before
their eyes, Paul related.
A report the following day from another source said the
balloon was still afloat several hours after the storm had passed,
drifting high above the clouds in the Ruel, Ont. region. It was believed
Van Orman and Trotter brought the bag down - they said from an altitude
of 8,000 feet - a few hours later.
The balloon was destroyed when it crashed into a tree.
The men in the basket were only slightly injured. Van Orman told Barrett
today they left the useless balloon in the Tamagami Forest reserve and
started to hike southward with a small stock of provisions.
But the hike lasted more than seven days. They ate
sparingly and suffered from cold during the chill Northern nights. Thick
brush tore at their clothes as they shouldered through and the rocky
turf battered their shoes until their feet became sore. -
Poles Fail to Find Balloon - QUEBEC, Monday, September
11.
Lieutenant Zbignieu Burzynski returned tonight from an
unsuccessful airplane flight in an attempt to locate the balloon in
which he and Captain Francizek Hynek apparently won the James Gordon
Bennett trophy race. The balloon came down about ninety miles from
Lemieux a week ago. The captain did not go on the flight. -
POLISH ADVENTURE? WOULD LIKE TO HAVE IT IN POLISH AND
ENGLISH
[ Two articles seen while searching for the above
material are cited here.]
[Soviet to Send 2d Big Balloon In Stratosphere - Army
Builds Latest One in Secrecy to Test Upper Air as Transport Medium –
From the Herald Tribune Bureau. Moscow, September 1, 1933.
Two independent Soviet attempts to reach the stratosphere
within the next few days were forecast tonight, when it was revealed
that a second stratosphere balloon, bigger than the one announced
recently, had been constructed secretly by the aviation department of
the War Commissariat and was awaiting favorable weather to take off from
the military aviation field here.
The balloon announced earlier which was built under the
auspices of the Osoviakhim (Society for Aviation and Chemical Defense),
is now being transported from Leningrad to Moscow, where the ascent will
be made.
Both balloons are larger than any free balloon ever
constructed before. The capacity of the bag built by the War
Commissariat is 880,000 cubic feet, while the Osoviakhim bag has a
capacity of 800,000 cubic feet. The largest previous balloon, that used
by Lieutenant Commander T.G.W. Settle in his unsuccessful ascent from
Chicago on August 5, 1933 had a capacity of 600,000 cubic feet.
Three flying officers are to man the gondola of the War
Commissariat balloon, which is constructed of aluminum, with nine
portholes and two hermetically sealed hatches.
The purposes of the flight are stated to be the study of
cosmic rays and analysis of the composition of the stratosphere and of
temperatures. The government is said to be interested in the
possibilities of stratosphere transport.]
[The altitude record for stratospheric balloons was
officially set on November 20, 1933, from Akron, Ohio, by Commander
T.G.W. Settle, USN, and Major Chester Fordney, USMC, who ascended to a
height of 61, 237 feet.]
[NYHT September 12, 1933
Einstein Receives Guard of British Gamekeepers - 100
College Students Sought to Protect Him From Nazis - CROMER, Norfolk,
England, September 11 (AP) Any one attempting to molest Albert Einstein
in his refuge on the Norfolk coast may get bullets from guns of his
host's gamekeepers...Since the Nazi revolution, Dr Einstein has
virtually been exiled from Germany. Last week it was reported that a
secret Nazi organization had put a price of $6,800 on his head.] |