[3] During the 1925 International Race Van Orman performed world's first emergency night landing of a balloon on a deck of a steamship at high seas.

[6] The race took off June 9, 1925 at Brussels; at first the Goodyear III balloon floated over France towards Spain but then a change in wind dragged it into Atlantic Ocean.

Van Orman's partner, Carl Wollam, desperate about inevitable death by drowning, intoxicated himself with cognac and attempted suicide at least twice.

[6] As Van Orman struggled to restrain Wollam from jumping overboard, he noticed navigation lights of a ship that turned out to be a small German freighter, Vaterland.

[7] Van Orman flashed morse code messages to the captain, who assisted the landing by turning on all available lighting and steering the ship towards the descending balloon.

[7] Fifty years after this event, Van Orman was still bitterly hurt by the disqualification: "the memory of that unfair decision never has grown dim".

[3] In retirement Van Orman, a shriner, travelled across the country as a motivational speaker, periodically flying hot air balloons until the final year or two of his life.