Welsh UFO Sightings 1802

Welsh UFO sightings from 1802. For sightings from other years please click HERE.

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PRESS
October 6th 1802
Swansea

Various newspapers, including Bell's Weekly Messenger, carried a report from Swansea on a failed balloon launch by Mr. Barret:

MR. BARRETT AND HIS BALLOON

THIRD UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT

Mr. Barrett, this day (after having disappointed us twice before with his Fire Balloons) in consequence of advertisements being circulated in every part of the Principality, assembled near 20,000 persons. The Balloon was to ascend at a quarter past one o'clock, with Mr. Barrett, and Dr. Turton, of this town. The day was as fine as could be wished, with a gentle breeze to the westward.

Great preparations were seemingly making by Mr. Barrett and assistants: the tubes, barrels, iron blings, etc. were on the ground the preceding night. The fields, the hills, the houses, the ships in harbour, every place was crowded with people from the most distant parts of the country; the town never was so full.

They began to fill the Balloon about eight o'clock; from that to eleven, they got on but very slowly. At this time a complete stop was put to the process by the want of vitriol. The Chemist, who had let Mr. Barrett have six hundred weight, would not furnish any more without the cash.

Time was now getting on; the Balloon had no appearance of any thing being in it; messages and messengers now passed between Mr. Barrett and the Chemist till three o'clock, when the assemblage of persons on the spot (at least 8000) began to be unruly.

Mr. Barrett now came forward on the stage to make an apology, when just as he said "Ladies and Gentlemen" - down fell the stage with a most tremendous crash, and Mr. Barrett and his Balloon with it, with a great nuber of persons. Many were severely hurt. One boy had his legs broke; the Balloon was torn in its fall, and Mr. Barrett was hurt.

He now attempted to harangue the populace, laying the blame on the Chemist, and promising to make another attempt in a day or two; but the fame he had acquired at Greenwich had reached this place, and hootings and howlings were the result. He begged them not to destroy the Balloon, which they permitted him at last to take away.

The town is in an uproar: every horse and post-chaise was engaged between the Bristol Passage and Milford. Mr. Barrett threatens to bring an action against the Chemist!