3-071-225 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fatal Disaster with a Balloon: car of the balloon Saladin, 1881. Engraving from a photograph by the Chemical Department of the Royal Arsenal, at Woolwich. 'The fate of Mr. Walter Powell, M.P. for Malmesbury, who...accompanied Captain James Templer, in charge of a balloon lent by the War Department to the Meteorological Society, on Saturday, the 10th December, is a matter of sincere regret...Captain Templer...[explained that] "...our pace now increasing to thirty-five miles an hour. To avoid the little village of Eype, Mr. Powell threw out some ballast...I rolled out of the car with the valve-line in my hand. This caused the balloon to ascend about eight feet, when Mr. Gardner dropped off, and unfortunately broke his leg. I found that the rope was being pulled through my hands, and I called to Mr. Powell, who was standing in the car, to come down the line. He took hold of the line, and in a few more seconds the line was torn through my hands. The balloon rose rapidly. Mr. Powell waved his hand to me...I proceeded to Weymouth, and found the s.s. Commodore with steam up. I here received a telegram from the Bridport harbour-master saying that the balloon had been seen to drop in the sea south of Bridport".' From "Illustrated London News", 1881.