Joseph Stirling, 18, gardener’s apprentice, saved Peter Sylak, 35, teamster, from drowning, Oyster Bay, New York, January 25, 1912. Sylak and a companion were skating on West Harbor at night, and the ice broke under Sylak. He caught the ice and kept from going beneath the surface. He sent his companion to summon help, and the man’s shouts attracted Stirling. Stirling crossed the ice for a distance of 3,500 feet. He lay on the ice at the edge of the hole and made three or four attempts to pull Sylak up on the ice with a hockey stick, but the ice broke and he did not succeed. He put the curved end of the stick inside Sylak’s coat, and Sylak grasped the stick. Twenty minutes later Sylak lost his hold on the stick, and Stirling held him at the surface by means of the stick. Men arrived with a rope, and one end was thrown to Stirling from a point about 15 feet from the hole. He knelt on the stick, leaned toward Sylak, and fastened the rope around Sylak’s body, then he crawled back. Another man helped him pull Sylak from the hole, and they then took him to shore. He was unconscious, but he was revived. Stirling’s clothes were wet from water that had flowed over the ice while he was trying to help Sylak, and they froze before he reached shore. One of his feet and the tips of his fingers were frosted. 8453-973
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