Edward J. Cartain saved Viola Rivers from drowning, Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, February 4, 1932. At night Mrs. Rivers, 33, was in her berth in the superstructure of a steel tank ship, which was moored at a dock in the Delaware River. A violent explosion in oil tanks beneath the superstructure wrecked the ship. The side of the ship, which formed the outside wall of tanks beneath the superstructure, was broken apart and blown against the dock, and water filled the tanks to a depth of 18 feet. The wrecked side sloped from the top of the dock at an angle of 45 degrees. The superstructure, which was chiefly of timber construction, was wrecked and began to burn. Mrs. Rivers placed a life preserver on each of her arms, descended a line for 20 feet below the superstructure, and then dropped into the water in one of the tanks at a point 40 feet from the dock. Oil burned on the side beams and ceiling of the tank, and the heat was intense. In response to Mrs. Rivers’s cries, Cartain, 29, stillman’s helper, who was on the dock, descended the sloping, wrecked side of the ship to the water and swam 60 feet partly under the burning superstructure to Mrs. Rivers. Holding her with one arm, with great exertion he swam against a current for 50 feet toward the dock, held to a hawser briefly, and then swam 10 feet farther to the side of the ship against the dock. A line was lowered from the dock, and Mrs. Rivers was drawn up. She sustained serious burns but recovered. Cartain suffered a gash on his right foot, which disabled him for six days.
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