Blanchard was an attempt to cross the English Channel to his native France, sponsored by Dr John Jeffries,
an American with a practice in London. They took off on the morning of 7 January 1785. Although they dropped all their
ballast overboard by the time the French coast was but a few miles away, the balloon never climbed to a safe altitude,
and it seemed they would come down in the sea. Frantically, the two men began jettisoning everything they could. successful!