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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: mckha489 on Sunday 18 April 21 03:25 BST (UK)
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I down loaded a file from National Archives and inadvertently ended up with a whole batch. So I have been looking through them ‘just in case’. And came across this one.
I had absolutely no idea Air Balloons had been used in such a manner!
“My Lord
I have to acquaint you this day I arrived at
Portsmouth from Gibraltar in the Air Ballooon
Transport and have as a State Prisoner on board”
etc etc…
It is dated 17 October 1795
Transport Office
Portsmouth
signed
by Chas’ Morgan, Lieut in the Royal Navy and Agent for His Majesty’s Transport Service
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Artillery observers also went up in them to spot enemy positions. I doubt the muskets of the day had enough trajectory to reach the balloons, thank goodness.
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"In 1862 two Royal Engineers officers, who had seen balloons being used in the American Civil War, drew the attention of the War Office to the potential use of balloons for observation. These officers demonstrated balloons to the army, but it was only in 1878 that the War Office directed Captain James Templer, an army reservist and experienced balloonist, to set up a small unit of Royal Engineers which became known as the School of Ballooning."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Ballooning
Seems the school was set up somewhat later than the 1790s
Tony
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I’ve been thinking about it. Did they fly up the coast and then over?
The name “Air Balloon Transport” makes it sound like a regular service.
How often were they blown into the Atlantic?
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The first manned hot-air balloon flight took place in 1783 by the Montgolfier brothers.
The first military use of a balloon was in 1794, during the battle of Fleurus, when a balloon was used for observation.
First flight across the English Channel was in 1785.
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In 1784 James Dinwiddie landed a balloon at the location in Bristol still known as Air Balloon Hill or Road. It was the end of a flight from Bath, some 10 miles away.
There is a very interesting account of air ballooning (Ballooning in the Bristol Area) published by the Fishponds (Bristol) Local History Society which can be found in the this link www.fishponds.org.uk
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In 1784 James Dinwiddie landed a balloon at the location in Bristol still known as Air Balloon Hill or Road. It was the end of a flight from Bath, some 10 miles away.
There is a very interesting account of air ballooning (Ballooning in the Bristol Area) published by the Fishponds (Bristol) Local History Society which can be found in the this link www.fishponds.org.uk
According to my copy of "Street Names of Bristol: Their Origins and Meanings" Dinwiddie's balloon was an unmanned hydrogen balloon.
On the same day Dr Parry launched an unmanned gas-filled balloon from Crescent Gardens in Bath. It came to earth just west of Wells.
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Sorry, should have said that a balloon launched by James Dinwiddie in Bath, reached the spot now known as Air Ballon Road/Hill in Bristol.
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The wording sounds very much like "Air Balloon" was the name of a transport ship.
Maybe it was named after something recently in the news, thus implying that it was up-to-date ?
If this thinking is right, any records would have been filed with others from the Transport Office. It was probably a civilian ship, leased to the navy, so would not have had "H.M.S." in its name.
The first Channel crossing by balloon was in 1785, but that was over the much narrower Straits of Dover.
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Maybe we have been reading the original note all wrong?
And that the trip was a under the auspices of the "Air Balloon Transport", but not necessarily by balloon?
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Maybe he arrived on the same ship that was transporting the air balloons.
Edit.
As it now appears there was a transport ship called "Air Balloon", I withdraw this suggestion!
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That certainly sounds more practical.
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There was a ship called "Air Balloon" - certainly sailed between London and Cork in 1795 (from shipping items in newspapers).
Also an item about the French army on the Rhine sending up some engineers in an air balloon for reconnaissance in July 1795.
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Having a boat named Air Balloon makes much more sense, but that isn’t how it reads!
I’ve just looked at the National archives description which I had t before, (as I only acquired it with something else) and they have added the word “vessel” although it is definitely not there in the original
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https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C12762348