Henry C. Hua, Sr., saved Leroy J. Victorine, Albert K. Gaspar, Gary Okada, and Eugene E. Gaspar, Jr., from drowning, Honaunau, Hawaii, October 30, 1961. When their outrigger canoe containing about 300 pounds of fish was swamped in the Pacific Ocean by high waves caused by a very strong wind, Victorine, 23, patrolman, Gaspar, 41, Eugene, 16, fisherman, Gary, 14, schoolboy, and another man entered the water and held to the canoe 900 feet from a promontory where a white-water boil crashed against rugged shore line. The five persons attempted without success to swim with the canoe around the promontory to calmer water in Honaunau Bay. A man on shore notified Hua, 37, park maintenance laborer, of the accident. At the bay Hua launched his motor-powered outrigger canoe, which was 24 feet long, two feet wide, and two feet deep. Taking with him a spool of rope, Hua piloted his craft out of the bay and into the rough water. By zigzag maneuvers to avoid being struck broadside by the waves he circled a jagged reef and moved into the open ocean, where the waves were eight to 10 feet high. As his canoe at times was lifted so that only the stern remained in the water, Hua by the zigzag technique proceeded with difficulty to abreast of the swamped canoe about 2,000 feet from the bay. The craft, tossed about by the waves, then was within 600 feet of shore, and the five persons clinging to it were tiring rapidly. Hua circled the swamped craft and, as the waves alternately raised his canoe and then dropped it into the deep troughs, idled the motor. While holding the control lever with one hand, Hua unreeled the rope and hurled the end toward the other craft. One of the men grasped the rope and tied it to an outrigger arm of the boat. Hua was forced to release his hold on the control lever briefly in order to secure the rope about an outrigger arm of his own canoe. The other man at the swamped boat, an excellent swimmer, then swam toward shore and by timing his actions with an upsurge of water was swept onto the promontory. Towing the other craft with the four persons clinging to it, Hua with difficulty piloted his canoe in the direction of the bay. At times the two canoes were swung off course, and Hua had to duck beneath the tow line as it was whipped over him. On at least two occasions the towed canoe was plunged downward from the crest of a wave and collided with Hua’s boat. Turning to circle the reef, Hua encountered greater difficulty because he had to resort again to zigzag maneuvers. The whipping tow line occasionally struck Hua but did not dislodge him. The towed craft was tossed about by the waves, but the four persons were able to cling to it. By careful maneuvering Hua passed the reef and proceeded safely thence into the bay with the others still clinging to the swamped boat
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