Andrée begins his Journey.
Slowly the immense, airy structure rose to a height of a few hundred feet, and sailed in a northerly direction out over Dane’s gate. Then it dropped suddenly, as if it had received a current of air from above, and almost touched the sea. Andrée threw out some sand bags, when the balloon rose again to a height of about three thousand feet, and sailed away in the same northerly direction. About an hour after the start, it was lost to sight in the clouds.
Some days later a carrier pigeon was shot in the rigging of an Arctic schooner off Spitzbergen. The pigeon had a message from Andrée tied under its wing. The message was dated July 13, and stated that the balloon sailed one hundred and forty-five geographical miles to the northward, and then headed east. It had traveled forty-five miles eastward when the pigeon was sent out.
From that day to this, no other message has been received from Andrée. Andrée believed that his balloon would float for six weeks, but the men who watched the start, said that it lost much gas and much ballast before it passed out of sight. They thought that it might have floated about fifteen days. Two thirds of the guide ropes, upon which Andrée depended for steering, were also lost at starting. At first the balloon traveled about twenty-five or thirty miles an hour. At this rate of speed, sailing northward, Andrée should have reached the pole in less than two days. But every ray of sunshine, every puff of colder or warmer wind, cause a balloon to rise or fall, and the methods of guiding and handling the delicate appliance are not yet thoroughly understood.
No one knows what happened to the balloon after it rose out of sight of the men on Dane’s island. For several years Andrée’s friends refused to believe that he had perished. They thought that he might be wandering about in the Frozen North in the care of some of the Eskimo tribes. Many stories have reached us from time to time bearing upon the fate of Andrée, but upon investigation they have all proved to be false. The only authentic trace which has been found is a buoy picked up northeast of Spitzbergen in 1899. This buoy was taken to Sweden, and proved to be the one which Andrée had taken with him for the purpose of dropping it, with a letter, in case he crossed the pole. No letter was found, but an anchor was attached to the buoy. This led to the supposition that the buoy and anchor were thrown out to lighten the balloon and keep it afloat a while longer, or else that the balloon had been lost in the sea and the buoy and anchor had drifted away.
It is now generally believed that Andrée and his two companions lost their lives through the descent of the balloon into the ocean.
XX. EXPEDITIONS OF 1902
During the spring of 1902, several expeditions were at work in the Northern regions, each hoping to be the first to reach the pole.