Otago Witness Illustrations

Otago Witness, Issue 2699, 6 December 1905, Page 39

Otago Witness Illustrations

AN AERONAUT'S DEATH.

At Santa Clara, California, on July 18, in the presence of 3000 persons, among whom were many visitors from San Francisco, Daniel Maloney, the young aeionaut who had been associated with Professor Mont-

some distance without disaster, when one of the wings seemed to collapse and the aeroplane plunged downward with its solitary passenger. The horrified spectators ran to the spot where it struck the ground, and the aeronaut was found manqded and unconscious. He died within a lew minutes. The balloon that took up the aeroplane was o f the hot-air pattern, and the means

sun, and grew smaller and smaller vi the heavens. The rope that is attached at one end to a windless, and is expected to steady the balloon on its sudden ascent, caught m the Jower right wing of the aeroplane as it started up. Only a lew spectators noticed the way it coiled viciously around the slender wing, crushing tin bamboo stay. It is this rope that lias

thought, .set up a wild cheer. Maloney scared in two large oiroies with outstretcliecl , wings, pivoting and turning witn the easel of any member of the feathered tribe. Then he turned the tail of ..he machine up, and started dou nward for a dip i reparatory to another leap in the sky. The machine rushed downward about 500tt with frightful rapidity. Maloney was seen To lower tl'e

tiol. Perhaps Father Kidi.ud A. Bell, the eJinueiH &uuntist and ocholai, was the first 1 to notace it, and then occurred a pathetic incident, perhaps without p.uallel. Raising his biretta, the stalwart form of the distinguished priest was seen to make the sign and direct an invocation towards that heaven near which the lite of the plucky aeronaut was hanging in the balance. With

— Guy, photo

gomery in his aeroplane experiments, plunged from an altitude of 3000 ft to his death. A trial trip of Montgomery's aeroplane was being made. Maloney was in the highest spirits, and protested with splendid self-conhdenoe that it would be the most successful flight he had made. The balloon ascended to 4000 ft or 5000 ft, when Maloney cut the machine loose. He descended for

employed to get her away were those which have hitherto been used. When all was in read ness, Maloney cried out " Ltet her go!" 'I his was responded to, and then Maloney , uttered the last words heard from his lips — "' Hurrah for Proiessor Montgomery !'' with a rush the great ship, with the slender, i ■Dirdlike de\ice upon which Malouey was I seated, rose high above the college builc!i ings, soared almost directly towards the <

caused the trouble on all previous ascensions. Whether the aeronaut noticed the damage oi not will novec be known; but if he did he at least gave no intimation. At a distance estimated at about 3000 ft, and about 200 yards tart of the starting point, Maloney cut loose from the big ba loon, and remained on th< 3 aeroplane, resting v>. mingly motionless. Those below, seeing me aaagur yoint passed, as they

, rudder and raise the wings in an endea\our Ito send the craft up again. The broken I wing tshen crumbled, and the machine, , | seemingly m the power of an aerial whirlwind, turned three somersaults backward, < whirling like a top. The aeronaut managed to right it, and 20G0ft up in the air it poised itself for a second. It became certain at this point that the machine had ceased to be operative, and was not subject to con-

the crumbled wing hanging limp and useless, the aeroplane began to fall, the descent becoming terribly swift till by actual count in 10 seconds man and machine fell an almost shapeless mass on the ground. Doctors carried the dying man on a stretcher towards the College Hospital, but on his way there and near lie historic old n.ission cross it was found that life had fled.

(].) Mjesd^mes Driver aud A. G. Fen wick, and As3isitante. (2.; The Salvation Army at the Railway station. (3.) Mr Grace, Secretary, pay* another viait to Mrs Theomin's boxes. (4.) Miasea Powar and Hazlett, Prinoes street

(5.) Miss Williams, Grand Hotel corner. (6.) A Capture — not a good capture, but th< best I could get in a limited time. (J. T Johnson, photo.) (7 ) Mesdames K. O. Reynolds and Dowhr.g, assisted by Mis 3 Mackerras.

V B.) An Outpost An outpcbt jimod with snii <■•=>, and eye« with ylam^ur aclnn To ease a tiemu.irg captive of his "thrums ' What can I do but yield to each alluring maiden, j And pass my checks m ere the army ciuin"? (J T. Johnson, photo )

(9.) St. John Ambulance at corner of Moray place and Princes stieet (10.) Mrp J. M. Ritchie at the corner of the Batik of New Zealand. (11.) Messis Grace and Speight opening Mis Theomin's be.v-« .»t -J .tcuba's romor

02.) Hospital Nur.=es at the corner of FrMerick and George streets. From the left: Sister Crookshank Sister Wright, Mr W. L. Logi« (secretary), Nurse Coneya, arid Nurse Irvino. (13.) Mr? R. S. Allen and assistants at liowa street corner. North Dunedin (Photoa bj Guy.)

'Nottro

Ihis bird's-eye view shows the position of Singapore, the new naval centre in the Far East. The risie of Singapore to greater prominence as a British naval station has been expected for some little time, and the acquisition of the extensive docks of the Tanjong Pagar Docks Company will naturally add materially to the value of the port as a base. The position of the port and docks is shown in the above bird's-eye view, in which the southern end of the Malay Peninsula is shown in the distance, with the island of Singapore in the middle distance. In the foreground are the strongly-fortified islands which shelter and protect the harbourage of Singapore. The Tanjong Pagar Docks lie to the south of the town, about a mile and a-half from the post office. At preseni a tramcar runs from the latter place to the docks. The fortifications around the port includ Fort Palmer, on a crag overlooking the sea, and four forts> on the islands of Pulo Brani and Pulo Blakang Mati. Vessels of heavy draught find a safe entrance in seven to ten fathoms of water in Singapore Harbour. Over 50 lines of sea-going steamers touch at Singapore, including the three great steamship companies trading with the East; the P. and O. Steam Navigation Company, the Messageries Maritimes, and) the North German Lloyd connect the Straits Settlements with Englana , France, and Germany on the one hand, and- China and Japan on the other. —Sphere.

In view of the extension of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, the focus of British naval activity has beem brought nearer home. It has beeoj the custom during r the past three seasons for the admirals of the India, Australia, and China squadrons to meet at Singapore for con. sultation. It is interesting to recall that Mr William Blakeney, R.N., prophesied in 1902, in his book " Cathay and Cipaingo," thai though Russia is the most grasping empire the world has known, the mastery of the Pacific will not rest with her. Her seaboard' will be controlled by that mighty breakwater, the foundations of which are already laid — the possessions of England in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo, those of the United States in the Philippines, and! of Japan in Formosa amd the island's stretching thence to Great Japan herself. Russia, I venture to predict, is likely to be driven out of Sakhalin." — Fphere.

The Manchester Guardian of Friday, September 29, says: — "Captain James Hannah Ritchie, commodore-captain of the Holme lime, of Maryport, died, yesterday at Maiyport. He had hadi a varied and adventurous career. He tried his luck twice at the gold diggings, sailed his own ship in the New Zealand coastal trade, was wrecked in the s.s. Ferm Holme, off Newfoundland', and had the barque Seii«l burned under him in mid-Atlantic. Unlike most seamen, he was a non-smoker and a strong teetotaller, and would allow no alcohol on his ship. He was 63 years of age."

Built to the order of Messrs Shaw and Co. by Mr J. Macpherson, from designs by Mr W. Cutten. In the forogroHEd of the rbove picture, showing the three old vessels, are seen the nbs of the old Doi Juan, a slaver in the early days. It ia stated by old seamen that she was captured outside Havanna with 700 slaves aboard. In 1862," under the name of the Rosalaie, she was engaged in carrying troops to Bolivia. While on the voyage out to this colony from San Francisco, under the command of the late Captain Vealo, she sprang a leai and put into Napier. A good deal of trouble seems to have arisen here with the crew. A dtonkey engine was, later on, put aboard to keep down the water, and the Don Juan reached her final destination. Her career was not ended, however, for one night she quietly left the port without her papers, but, owing to the break an the bar, was detained there, thus nabling the water police to board and detain her till the tug arrived and towed her back to port. Since then she has been turned into a hulk, the Union Steam Ship Company's saL-making and! repairing department being located on her for a considerable time. Right up to recent years, many relics of lier former vocation, in the sha.pe of chains, leg-irona, Mexican muskets and cutlasses, etc.. were to be found in the hold of the old vessel. Beyond the Don Juan are the Esk and Ca lfornia, slowly going to decay