THROUGH NIAGARA RAPIDS.

Northern Advocate, 20 February 1911, Page 2

THROUGH NIAGARA RAPIDS.

A DARING ADVENTURE

FULL OF PERILOUS INCIDENT.

Captain Klaus Larsen, of Cleveland, Ohio, shot the thundering rapids of Niagara recently in a motor-boat. That the dare-devil navigator should live to tell the tale astounds everybody who bos seen the maddening swirl of waters through which he passed. After a passage of Ay 2 miles his battered and leaking craft plunged into the eddy below Devil's Hole. As all the perils of the trip had been escaped, and he was disabled in the arm and leg, Captain

i.arsen seized a rescue rope and struggled to land.

Forty thousand people watched the feat. Captain Larsen was affloat for 45 minutes. Pie put out from the foot of the cataract at 4.45, and ended his

fearful voyage at 5.30. Every second ci that time there was peril, and the boat actually disappeared from viewtwice. At one place the terrific force of the current lifted it clear from the water, and it took a flying leap of 20ft, oncl then skidded after the fashion of a flat stone. The spectators had a continuous thrill from start to finish. Captain Larsen made immediately

for mid-channel, with the engine of his boat, which is named the Ferro, running at top speed, but the throb was lost in the roar of the water. Steering was impossible. Cascades of foaming waters pounded the frail craft criss-cross, and tossed it about at will

like a chip.

On approaching the great waves in the rapids the boat again acquired a break-neck velocity, and as the spectators looked on agape it took its record leap of 20ft clear of the water. The push that catapulted it into the air happened to catch it on an even keel, and this lucky chance enabled it t.> strike the water again right side up. Then it skipped along as if doubtful whether to remain afloat or turn into an aeroplane. Righting itself, it passed to the edge of the pool, and got beyond the danger point without notable mishap.

There had been so much bumping c>nd tossing in the early stages of the passage that Captain Larsen was sure of little by this time except that he vas alive, and that the boat was still under him. As he emerged from the pcol, however, in a moment of comparative quiet, he discovered that the engine had broken down. Ahead of him were waters scarcely less turbulent than those through which he had struggled. From this point onwards the Ferro was a plaything for the river. It dropped into hollows as if it would never come up again, and was as often tossed aloft as if it would try for a flight through the air again. One wave spun it around until it pointed down stream stern first, and next gave it a broadside blow which tilted it. A third wave turned it completely over, and then, as if the sport were becoming too serious, a fourth righted it.

In this somersault Captain Larsen's

1-ft leg was struck so hard that he thought it was broken.

With a useless rudder and an engine disabled there was nothing for Captain Larsen to do except throw himself on the mercy of the river. His antagonist had no disposition to take an unfair advantage. It sent him over a zig-zag course, and made him hold tight to his seat. An occasional billow climbed aboard, and there was a

continuous shower of spray.

Once through Devil's Hole the Ferro swung towards the rocks on the American side. Captain Larsen saw his danger, but he could but simply wait in the hope that the worst would not happen. There Avas a boulder right in the boat's track, and its passenger, when a kindly wave got beneath and lolled them directly over that obstacle, but clear of it. The toss was so herculean, however, that it plunged the Ferro's nose fast between two oilier boulders.

Captain Larsen scrambled forward, and for five minutes worked desperately to get the boat.clear. He was then 40ft from shore. His strength counted for nothing in that predicament, and when he was despairing r.nd decided that he must swim for it a comb of water came along, lifted the Ferro out from between the rocks, and sent her careering to mid-stream.

This buffeting and cross-current action supplied a fine example of continual motion without much progress, until the boat entered Dead Man's Eddy, and went aground. A man on L.hore waded into the water and threw a rope to Captain Larsen. He hailed the boat after him, tied it up, and then went home by tram-car.