It was to be guided by a sail fitted with guide ropes which would drag along the ground and prevent the balloon from being driven at the full force of the wind. The difference between the velocity of the wind and of the retarded balloon was to be utilised for steering. On trial the plan was found to answer very well. The _Virgo_, carrying with it Andrée, his balloon, and a party of geologists, left Tromsö on June 14, 1896, and nine days later a suitable place for building the balloon house was found on Danes Island. The landing of the balloon and the building of the house occupied nearly a month, and it was not until July 27 that everything was ready for a start. Unfortunately, however, the wind, which had been for the most part favourable while the preparations were in progress, now veered round, and for the rest of the summer it blew steadily from the north, when it did not drop altogether. Week after week passed by without bringing any prospects of a start, and at last Andrée was obliged to pack up his balloon and return home, hoping for better luck next year. On May 30 he was back at Danes Island once more with his balloon, which had been undergoing sundry modifications during the winter. The house had fallen somewhat into disrepair, but it was soon put in order, and the inflation of the balloon, which was begun on June 19, was finished at midnight on the 22nd. Everything was now ready for a start, and on Sunday, July 11, Andrée decided to take advantage of a stiff breeze which had set in from the south. Standing in the car with his two companions, Frænkel and Strindberg, he gave the orders for the ropes to be cut. The balloon rapidly ascended, to a height of 600 feet, and, after a temporary drop, floated away north over the flat peninsula of Hollændernæs. It remained visible to those at Danes Island for about an hour. Then it disappeared over the northern horizon, never to be seen again. The only news that the world ever received of Andrée and his companions after this did nothing towards solving the mystery of their fate. Of the thirteen buoys which he carried with him on board his balloon only four were ever recovered. One was picked up at Skjervö, in Norway, and was found to contain a message to the effect that it had been thrown out at 10 o’clock on the night of July 11. Another, which had been dispatched on its journey about an hour later, when the party had reached lat. 82° N., long. 250 E., was recovered off the coast of Iceland. The two remaining buoys bore no message from the explorer. On July 15, 1897, the sailors of the s.s. _Alken_ shot a carrier pigeon which had been let loose two days previously in lat. 82° 3´ N., long. 150 5´ E., but that was the latest intelligence of the explorers that ever reached their friends at home.