AIRSHIP DROPS INTO LONG ISLAND SOUND
June 13, 1908
On Saturday, June 13, 1908, aeronaut Charles Hamilton of New York took off in his airship from Savin Rock Amusement Park in West Haven, Connecticut, bound for New Haven. Upon his arrival at New Haven, he passed over Yale University where a baseball game was in progress between Princeton and Yale. From there he circled the dome of City Hall before moving on towards Union Station where he suddenly began loosing altitude. As the airship was coming down, Hamilton was carried over Union station barely missing the roof, and came down hard in the switch yard. Neither he nor his ship suffered any real injury, and within an hour he was ready to take off again. Once aloft, he encountered heavy winds and his ships helm wasn’t responding like it should. Before long he found himself being blown out into Long Island Sound where he would be at the mercy of the winds and the elements. Acting quickly, Hamilton put the ship down in relatively shallow water just off New Haven, where he was rescued by a passing boat.
Source: New York Times, “Airship Falls Into Sound”, June 14, 1908