2-888-768 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Accident to the Nassau Balloon, between Gravesend and the Nore, [Kent], 1850. '...Mr. Green ascended...accompanied by Mr. Rush...for the express purpose of testing the improvements made by that gentleman in the newly-invented aneroid barometer...They lost no time in making the intended experiments...then found themselves sailing rapidly down Sea Reach...Mr. Green...opened the valve, and the car first struck the water about two miles north of Sheerness...they were drawn with considerable rapidity through the river...the...crew of the cutter found great difficulty in securing the balloon; but, by pouring a volley of musketry into it, so as to enable the gas to escape by the perforations...they were enabled to secure it. Mr. Green was severely injured on the head and face, from the struggles he had to make to keep himself on the balloon when in the water'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.