ANDREE'S FATAL FLIGHT IN A BALLOON 401 



In the summer of 1909 Mr. Wellman for the first time suc- 

 ceeded in getting a send off for the Pole. He did not go far, the 

 journey suddenly ending for a reason like that which had imperilled 

 Andree's voyage at its start, the breaking of his guide rope. Well- 

 man had a long and very heavy rope attached to his car, not as a 

 rudder but as a drag to counterbalance the ascending power of the 

 balloon. It was intended to trail on the ice, so that, if the air-ship 

 should rise and lift it upward, the weight of the part in the air 

 would increase so as to limit the degree of ascension and keep the 

 height practically uniform. The drag-rope weighed about 1,400 

 pounds, its weight being increased in an ingenious manner. It was a 

 hollow tube of leather in which a considerable part of the food supply 

 was packed. Outwardly, in its lower part, it was covered with over- 

 lapping steel scales, so that it could slip easily over rough ice. 



It was this weighted rope that provedd disastrous to the expedi- 

 tion. The strain of the first sudden rise of the air-ship caused such 

 a tension that the rope parted near the car, its total length being lost 

 and the balloon darting rapidly upward into the air. The often 

 deferred expedition was again at an end. To venture onward with- 

 out the drag rope would be like a ship venturing to sea without its 

 rudder, and it became necessary to bring the apparatus to land 

 again, a feat which was accomplished with some trouble and risk. 



It may be said with some assurance that this project is now at 

 an end, for the announcement from Cook and Peary some two 

 months later that they had reached the Pole by the method of 

 sledging, put an end to the need of such an expedition. Even if 

 Wellman had reached the Pole in the summer of 1909, he would 

 have ranked only third in the roll of polar discoverers. It will prob- 

 ably be the same with Count Zeppelin's projected polar voyage in 

 his great air-ship, one that has proved itself capable of making an 

 eight hundred mile excursion within a few days, unless he should 

 venture upon the voyage for the purpose of showing what an air- 

 ship is capable of doing. 



