It was July 5, 1930 when George A. Stathakis who lived in Buffalo, New York, and worked as a chef, made a bold decision
He wanted to take part in the "Horseshoe Falls" falls from Niagara Falls that took place in those years, locked inside a barrel.
He believed that with the income he would get from such a fall, he could publish a book about metaphysical experiences, the "secret of life" as he would call it.
At the age of 46, he took with him, on his last and fatal venture, his beloved turtle, "Sonny Boy", who was 150 years old.
As the infoniagara.com archive reports, Stathakis built a barrel weighing one ton with the help of his friends. The barrel was about 10 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter.
Also, oak wood, two layers of boards, steel and cork lining were used for its construction.
In particular, it was equipped at both ends with "steel buffers", supported by screws. The barrel was indeed quite durable, however he miscalculated and only took an oxygen tank with him.
At 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 5, 1930, the barrel fell into the rapids of Niagara. Cosmos watched this dive, anxiously awaiting the reappearance of Stathakus after the fall. Even the New York Times was there.
Veteran Riverman William "Red" Hill, whom Stathakis had hired to retrieve the barrel and guide it to shore, waited in vain.
It was already dusk and the barrel was nowhere to be seen. At dawn the next morning, he was seen near Falls View Bridge. It took four hours for Hill to collect the barrel, pull it ashore and open its hatch.
Inside, Stathakis was dead from suffocation. But his turtle remained alive and, as the newspapers of the time wrote, "... crawled feebly out into the air...".
One of the screws of the hatch had come loose, water had entered the barrel but Stathakis had already suffocated from the lack of oxygen and being in it for so many hours. He himself had survived the fall, but was never able to open the door to get out, with the barrel trapped behind the falls, inaccessible to his rescuers.
A worker at the Buffalo distillery, which had made the barrel, later told reporters:"...we tried to get him to take more than one oxygen tank but he said one was enough for 3 hours. There was room for 10, but no he wanted. He already considered three hours a long time..." and shortly before entering the barrel he made one last statement:"...If I don't get out in three hours then there will be no reason for me to continue living anyway".
After the cask had been recovered, a tent was erected in front of almost the place where it had been found, for the purpose of exhibiting it. Those who wanted to see would have to pay 10 cents, while the people who retrieved it shared the money, telling the story of Stathakus.
In the video below you can see the inside of the barrel which is now part of the Niagara Daredevil Exhibit. The scratches on the walls bear witness to Stathakis' battle with death.
It is said that George Stathakis had - earlier - prophesied his death and had written in a local newspaper that "he was ready to be sacrificed at Niagara".
It is worth noting that a woman, American teacher Annie Edson Taylor was the first person to fall with the barrel falls and survive.
The venture took place on October 24, 1901 when Taylor was 63 years old.
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