Hugh A. MacNeil, 19, student, saved Annie B. McKinnon, 24, from drowning, Ball’s Creek Bridge, Nova Scotia, July 19, 1935. While swimming in Ball’s Creek, Mrs. McKinnon became weak, could not swim, and called to another woman, who attempted to aid her and then swam to the bank. Mrs. McKinnon was briefly submerged in water 15 feet deep, drifted in a current of two to three m.p.h., and was 15 feet from the bank. MacNeil, who was fully clothed and was a poor swimmer, got on a bridge abutment at the bank, dived from a point eight inches above the water, and rose close to the point where last he had seen Mrs. McKinnon, who then was submerged. He dipped under the surface, grasped her hair, and swam to the surface. Mrs. McKinnon clasped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist, and both were submerged. They became separated, and MacNeil grasped the belt of her bathing-suit, rose, and yelled to a man for a rope. He tried to swim toward the bank, but they drifted with the current, were again submerged, and became separated. MacNeil again got hold of her hair, rose, tried to swim across the current with Mrs. McKinnon, who had ceased to struggle, but drifted 25 feet farther. Then a rope was thrown to MacNeil, and he and Mrs. McKinnon were pulled to the bank. MacNeil was nauseated and weak. Mrs. McKinnon, who was almost unconscious, was revived.
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