'The Attempted Balloon Voyage Across The Channel', 1882. 1. inflating the balloon, 2. the start from Canterbury, 3. passing over Folkestone, 4. the basket and its lifebuoy. Aeronaut and civil engineer Joseph Simmons and Colonel Brine attempted to cross the English Channel from Canterbury to France in March 1882, watched by several thousand people. They flew across Dover, but eight miles off Calais the wind veered and they realised they would be drifting off to the North Sea. Simmons decided to ditch in the Channel where they were rescued by a packet steamer and the balloon was recovered. Simmons died in a ballooning accident at Ulting, near Maldon in Essex in 1888.