We have recently been donated a sand bag from Jasper Tomlinson via Giles Camplin both of whom worked with Anthony Smith on his gas balloon adventures with that legendary balloon ‘JAMBO’.
This is no ordinary sand bag though because it was carried by the Belgian team of Phillipe Quersin and Martial van Schelle on their flights in every Gordon Bennett balloon race from 1933 to 1938.
Quersin had entered the race in 1925 with Alexandra Veenstra and were declared winners after flying for 47 hours and 1,380 km from Brussels and here is their story from Jan Boesman’s book ‘Gordon Bennett Balloon Race’….
“The most interesting flight was made by the crew Veenstra and Quersin who made a flight lasting 47 hours over the sea. At 9.25 p.m. they made a landing on a rocky cliff in northern Spain. As they could not deflate the balloon and pack it up in that rocky place, Quersin jumped out of the basket to hold onto the balloon and walk with it to a better place. But a sudden gust of wind dragged the ‘Prince Leopold’ over the cliffs and Quersin just managed to board her before she was blown out over the ocean. When they had used all the ballast, they had to go down into the sea, but they climbed into the wooden ring above the basket where they were able to stay, some feet above the water, until they were picked up after six hours by a small steam-boat. For the adjudicators it was obvious that an acceptable landing had been made on the cliffs at Cape Torignana at a distance of 1345 km. from Brussels. With this exceptional performance Veenstra and Quersin became the winners of the race.”
Quersin was less successful with Van Schelle and never saw the podium again, although he was placed 5th in 1933 ( out of 6 entrants) and last in 1936 with 801 km.
Read more about Martial van Schelle’s extraordinary life here.