Ballooning
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Arthur Conan Doyle went up in a balloon and was "terribly frightened" (1901), but he was so delightful an expedition that he had always been eager for another and a longer one (1909). He also saw a war balloon during the second Boer war in South Africa (1900).
Photos
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Arthur Conan Doyle (right) helping to prepare the "City of York" balloon which he will fly with Percival Spencer the same day (4 july 1901).
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Arthur Conan Doyle starting his balloon trip (4 july 1901).
Conan Doyle about Balloons
- « Then with the first light we saw a strange sight. A monstrous blister was rising slowly from the veldt. It was the balloon being inflated—our answer to the lurking guns. We would throw away no chances now, but play every card in our hand—another lesson which the war has driven into our proud hearts. » (A Glimpse of the Army, 1900)
- « The first time I went up in a balloon I was terribly frightened. It was pleasant enough at first, with all the spectators cheering, and so on. But when we had been rising some minutes, and were a mile from the ground, and I looked over the side:— I was never in such a miserable fright in my life. To see people running about, looking the size of dogs, and to feel that there was only a sort of strawberry-basket between me and that! It was a long time before I would let go of the ropes. But after I had been up a little while I became quite used to it, and I suppose that is what happens to everyone. Spencer, the aeronaut, who was with me, struck me as being very brave and cool. I heard one story about him which seemed to me to support this impression. It was while he was in India, in the days before balloons were so common as they are now. Spencer was going to give an exhibition at Calcutta, and thousands of natives had come to see him go up, some of them from a considerable distance. On the day when the ascent was to take place it happened that a tremendous hurricane was blowing. The authorities were in great trouble about it. Word had gone forth that the ascent was to take place on that particular day, and the natives had come in to see him go up. If the ascent was postponed, the faith of the native in the word of an Englishman would be considerably diminished. Spencer saw the point, and up he went, and away he was carried at a hundred miles an hour, and finally came down again in some tiger-haunted spot on the Hoogli, where the people lived up trees to prevent the tigers getting at them. Spencer sat on what was left of his balloon and looked round him, spent the night on the wreck with the tigers, and in the end got help, and came safely back to Calcutta after a journey of a week or more. Yes, he got an ovation when he arrived. » (Grit. A Talk with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903)
- « I had one balloon ascent in which we covered some 25 miles and ascended 6,000 feet, which was so delightful an expedition that I have always been eager for another and a longer one. A man has a natural trepidation the first time he leaves the ground, but I remember that, as I stood by the basket with the gas-bag swinging about above me and the assistants clinging to the ropes, some one pointed out an elderly gentleman and said: "That is the famous Mr. So-and-So, the aeronaut." I saw a venerable person and I asked how many ascents he had made. "About a thousand," was the answer. No eloquence or reasoning could have convinced me so completely that I might get into the basket with a cheerful mind, though I will admit that for the first minute or so one feels very strange, and keeps an uncommonly tight grip of the sideropes. This soon passes, however, and one is lost in the wonder of the prospect and the glorious feeling of freedom and detachment. As in a ship, it is the moment of nearing land once more which is the moment of danger — or, at least, of discomfort; but beyond a bump or two, we came to rest very quietly in the heart of a Kentish hop-field. » (Some Recollections of Sport, 1909)
Articles
- Some Military Lessons of the War (1900)
- The Great Boer War (1900)
- Memories and Adventures (1923)
- Gertrude Bacon
Fictions with Balloons
- The Narrative of John Smith (1880-90s)
- A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus (1899)
- The Lost World (1912)
- The Horror of the Heights (1913)
