Reuben F. Slattery, 20, apprentice linotype operator, attempted to save James K. Murray, 13, schoolboy, from drowning, Superior, Wisconsin, January 10, 1931. While skating on Superior Bay, James broke through thin ice at a point eight feet from thick ice and 850 feet from shore, where the water was 22 feet deep. Slattery, who was heavily clothed, skated over a wide stretch of thin ice toward James. When he reached a point within 12 feet of him, the ice cracked and sagged, and Slattery then lay prone and started to crawl toward him. The ice broke under him and between him and James, and he swam 10 feet to James and grasped him by the arm. James took hold of him. Slattery then lost his hold, and James let go of him, went under the surface, and was drowned. Slattery swam to the edge of the ice, but he was numb and unable to climb out. He was rescued by a man who held to the skate of a man on thick ice and swung himself at full length on thin ice toward Slattery. Slattery got hold of one of the man’s skates and was pulled to the thick ice.
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