Edwin I. Adolphson saved Paul M. Moriyama from drowning, Mokuleia, Hawaii, April 13, 1961. A boat containing Moriyama, 39, painter, and another man was overturned by waves in the Pacific Ocean and held by its anchor with only two feet of the bow above water a mile from shore in Kauai Channel. While Moriyama held to the boat, the other man with great difficulty swam to shore and telephoned for help. Firemen and Adolphson, 44, police sergeant, who had been at the fire station while off duty, went to the scene. Breakers were about 10 feet high, and swells beyond them were about seven feet high. A call was put in for a helicopter but, fearing the boat might sink in the meantime, Adolphson volunteered to go to Moriyama and if necessary keep him afloat until the aircraft arrived. Adolphson changed to swimming trunks and fins and put a rubber life-tube over his shoulder. On a surfboard different from the one he was accustomed to using, he then entered the water from a sandspit, the only possible point of entry along the shore line of sharp coral deposits and rocks. Paralleling the shore 150 feet from it was a coral reef 30 feet wide. After telling the firemen that conditions would prevent his return except by the helicopter, Adolphson paddled at angles to the breakers to 50 feet from shore and then 350 feet parallel to the reef to opposite a 50-foot opening in it. Three times the breakers threw Adolphson back and perilously close to the jagged coral-covered rocks before he finally got through the opening. He then made his way through the swells to where Moriyama was clinging to the boat. Adolphson put the life-tube around Moriyama, who was tired. Within 15 minutes the helicopter arrived and on separate trips took Moriyama and later Adolphson to shore. The surfboard Adolphson had used later was dashed to pieces on the rocks.
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