William F. Assmann

Lt. Vogt later described to newspaper reporters pulling a valve, and the "Harburg III" plummeting in a “terminal velocity descent”.

William Assman’s left arm was broken, and his right hand badly sprained, an artery in the wrist cut.

Despite his injuries the men were forced to swim to nearby Gull Island, where they tied the balloon to a tree.

After an all-night stay on the island, soaked and cold from their episode in the lake, Assman bleeding profusely from his cut, the aeronauts were rescued around 6:00 am by two local Native Indians passing by in a canoe.

The men were paddled 10 miles to the tiny hamlet of Nipissing Village, south of the railway town of North Bay, Ontario.