The Atlantic in three days
New York, April 13, 1844. The Sun publishes an Extra: a balloon has supposedly crossed the Atlantic in seventy-five hours. The Victoria is said to have reached Sullivan’s Island, near Charleston, South Carolina. For readers in New York, the ocean has suddenly acquired a different scale. The newspaper describes a flight from shore to shore with eight people aboard.
The announcement names Monck Mason, presented as an aeronaut, and Harrison Ainsworth, a writer. It supplies departure and arrival times, describes the machine and claims to have diaries obtained by its agent in Charleston. Technical detail carries the news all the way into the basket.
The Sun claims the first account of this extraordinary journey and promises further particulars. The balloon, its passengers and the agent said to have collected their words are far from New York. What readers there can hold is this printed sheet.
CLIPPED editorial summary of the announcement printed on 13 April, p. 1, columns 2–3. These are the newspaper’s claims. Read through the Poe Society transcription; no original facsimile rechecked here.