O. Jack Cloward, 38, marine pier superintendent, helped to save James M. Murphy, 23, storekeeper, from drowning, San Francisco, California, September 17, 1953. Murphy, who attempted to board a steamship moving slowly in reverse from its berth alongside a pier, lost his hold on a ladder suspended from the main deck and dropped 15 feet to a moored wooden fender 40 feet long and three feet in diameter, sustaining severe injuries which rendered him unconscious. He rolled into deep water in a space 18 inches wide between the fender and a recessed piling and sank. Cloward ran to the pier above Murphy, removed only his coat, and descended a piling to the fender, which was pressed tightly against the face of the pier by the hull of the moving ship. The propellers of the steamship were churning the water into turbulence. Cloward lay prone on the fender with his feet touching the steamship hull and got hold of Murphy, who was submerged a foot. He drew Murphy’s head above water and sat up on the fender, gripping Murphy around the waist with his legs. The steamship slowly swung away from the pier, Cloward maintaining his holds on Murphy as the fender drifted outward five feet. At Cloward’s call men atop the pier pulled on the mooring lines and drew the fender close to the piling. Two men who had descended to a horizontal support five feet above the water also obtained holds on Murphy. They and Cloward fastened Murphy securely to a stretcher which was lowered, and he was raised to the top of the pier. A rope was thrown to Cloward, and he was lifted onto the pier as the other men ascended the piling. Murphy was revived at a hospital and recovered from his injuries in five weeks. 43013-3946
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43013-3946