On 17 October 1910, William Assman and Lieutenant Leopold Vogt, of the German Army, took off in the hydrogen-filled "Harburg III", from St. Louis, Missouri, one of ten balloons in the James Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race. At 6:10 pm, 18 October, they crossed into Canada; by 9:00 pm they opted to land as their ballast was getting low, but were over the waters of Georgian Bay, and thus continued onward. Two hours later, in the pitch black of night — having traveled 850 miles from St. Louis, at speeds upwards of 60 miles per hour -- Assman and Vogt, having used up all but 2 ½ sacks of ballast, decided they had no alternative but to put down. They were over Lake Nipissing, Ontario, at 18,000 feet. Lt. Vogt later described to newspaper reporters pulling a valve, and the "Harburg III" plummeting in a “terminal velocity descent”. As the aeronauts were about to be smashed to death on Gull Island, the wind cast their balloon into the lake. Both men were momentarily knocked unconscious by the impact. 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. For two hours they shouted for assistance, but were far enough out in the lake (which is deep in the Canadian wilderness) that they got no response.