Dhaka’s first aeronaut

It was 16th March 1892. One person won the sky of Bangladesh on this day 123 years ago. The person who commenced the history by taking off from the land of Dhaka with a balloon was not a Bengali. She was an American woman named Jeanette Van Tassel.

Full story of Jeanette Van Tassel was not written anywhere. The first information I got intrigued my curiosity. I had to gradually build up her story by collecting pieces of information from different sources. The story of collecting information is more adventurous than any detective story.

Ganiur Raja, son of the famous song writer from Sylhet Hason Raja, once came to Dhaka. He wrote a journal on his visit to Dhaka. From that journal, I first came to know about Jeanette Van Tassel. Coming to Dhaka, Ganiur Raja witnessed Jeanette’s flying in the sky. In his journal, there was no mention of Jeanette’s name, address and the country of her origin. My curiosity for knowing more about the first aeronaut on Dhaka’s sky became irrepressible. I decided to find out the identity and the real story of this girl.

On 1 August 1989, an event took place by accident. Khaza Halim, an offspring of Dhaka’s Nawab family, had an old photograph of Dhaka in his possession which I came across. This photo is about a big half-swollen balloon surrounded by some Dhaka dwellers and Europeans. From this photo, we can find strong proof of the description of Ganiur Raja. Then I made a photocopy of that photograph. Fortunately, I made a photocopy because the original photograph was lost later on.  

All that I had as sources, however, were the photocopy of that photograph and a few pages from Ganiur Raja’s journal. Ganiur Raja wrote that the girl had flown in the sky on a balloon, but while coming down with a parachute she had died in an accident. Ganiur Raja came to Dhaka in 1299 according to Bengali calendar. By that estimate, the year was 1892 by the Christian calendar. I assumed that the girl was buried at the Christian graveyard located in Narinda. But no epitaph bearing Jeanette’s name was found there. 

Finding no way, I went to the St Thomas Church in old Dhaka. There, I searched in their old death register. After searching a lot, Jeanette’s name and date of her death was found. She died on March 18, 1892. She was 24 as was mentioned at the column indicating age of deceased people in the death register. Aeronaut is the profession mentioned. Accident, as mentioned at the register, was the reason of her death.

But how to retrieve the whole story of Jeanette? Searches began to find out what happened before and after that day. I went to the manuscript department of Dhaka University. I started searching the microfilms of contemporary newspapers reserved over there. The story started forming.

Jeanette Van Tassel’s husband was Park Van Tassel. Ahsanullah, the Nawab of Dhaka, went to Kolkata and signed them on 10 March 1892 to come to Dhaka and ride on balloon. According to the contract, Jeanette flew in the sky in the afternoon of 16 March 1892 from the other side of the Buriganga River. She crossed the river on balloon and went up to 6000 feet high. Having completed her flying, she jumped with a parachute in an attempt to get down. There was a garden house of Nawab in Shahbag. Her flying parachute got stuck in a big Tamarisk tree located at the garden house. Jeanette also stuck there. Holding a part of the parachute, she was hanging hopelessly 15-20 feet above from the ground.  

It became difficult to get Jeanette down. But her rescue mission continued. One English police officer stationed at Dhaka tried to get her down with the help of three bamboos tied together. While she was coming down, the knot of the bamboos got loosened. Jeanette was severely injured falling down on the ground. Almost senseless Jeanette died on 18 March at 1 o’clock at night after suffering from fever.

Few days before riding on a balloon, this news was announced publicly to Dhaka dwellers. That is why, there were a lot of people to see this event. On 16 March 1892, in the afternoon, courtyard of Ahsan Manzil, roof top and upper part of the buildings adjacent to the Buriganga River were covered with people. Hundreds of people took position on boats in the river.

Jeanette’s unexpected and sudden death shocked the Dhaka dwellers and foreigners. Being an American, how much Jeanette took place in the hearts of Dhaka dwellers can be understood from the reports published at that time. That incident brought the British government and Dhaka dwellers face to face. People of Dhaka were blaming the British government. They were probably thinking that the English police officer’s inability of rescuing was the reason behind Jeanette’s pathetic death. On the other hand, English newspapers were blaming Dhaka dwellers on behalf of the English government. They raised the allegation citing that ‘Dhaka dwellers are spreading rumors’. They had nothing to do to avoid Jeanette’s death. After few days, Jeanette’s husband Park Van Tassel left Dhaka closing all debates.

Nawab Ahsanullah was absent at the time of Jeanette’s burial. He probably wanted to avoid the debates that were raised against the British government. From the attempts of local poets, it was understood that how much Dhaka dwellers were passionate for Jeanette. They published a book regarding this event. Afterwards, time went by. Jeanette’s first aeronautical mission on Dhaka’s sky and her death gradually went into oblivion.

I mentioned earlier that there was no epitaph on Jeanette’s grave. Still, attempts to find her grave continued. After long days of effort, I rescued her nameless graveyard. It is another story. Newspapers of that time wrote that Jeanette was a gymnast by profession. She was born at Ohio, Cincinnati in USA. She was Presbyterian Christian by religious faith. Newspapers also wrote that her father was an architect. He was involved with the famous Chicago fair. Jeanette was the only kid of the family. It had been four years since she had taken balloon riding as a profession. She flew on the balloon three hundred times before Dhaka. Dhaka was her 41st parachute landing.

With this information, I wrote a book named Dhaka’s first aeronaut. It was published in 2000, but enquiry about Jeanette was not finished yet. No photograph of Jeanette was still found. I was desperate to get a photograph of her. I found lots of further information in later enquiries which necessitated some correction of old information.

Source- http://www.prothom-alo.com/we-are/article/482125/ঢাকার-প্রথম-আকাশচারী