David Wright Fitzgerald, 53, farmer, died attempting to save Alexander Williams, 21, laborer, from drowning, Forest Glen, Georgia, July 22, 1936. While fishing with a seine 16 feet long in the Ocmulgee River, Fitzgerald and two other men, who were supporting poles at the ends of the seine, and Williams, who waded behind the seine 30 feet from the bank, stepped into water 10 feet deep. Williams’s actions were not observed, but Fitzgerald and the others swam to wadable water. They then saw Williams’s forearm protruding from the surface. Fitzgerald remarked that Williams was drowning; and he swam 25 feet to Williams, who remained under the surface, and took hold of his arm. He was momentarily submerged, only his head appeared at the surface, and he called for help. As he drifted in a current of one to two m.p.h. and was again briefly submerged, one of the other men swam toward him. The man took hold of Fitzgerald’s shirt but was unable to sustain his weight and released him and swam to the bank. Fitzgerald and Williams were drowned.
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