Robert F. Barton, 12, schoolboy, saved M. Germaine Titus, 14, and Beatrice F. LaFleur, 13, from drowning, Providence, Rhode Island, January 11, 1931. While Robert, two older boys, Germaine, and Beatrice were skating in a line abreast on Roger Williams Park Lake, they broke through the ice, which was one inch thick, and went into water five to seven feet deep. The hole in the ice was more than 25 feet long and was five to six feet wide. It was dark, and the water was very cold. Robert, who was the nearest to the bank, touched bottom and then broke the ice for eight or nine feet to the bank. The girls went under the surface briefly in deep water and then grasped one of the older boys, who could not swim. Robert waded from the bank and then swam three feet to Germaine. He grasped her, swam three feet to wadable water, and took her to the bank. He then worked himself close to Beatrice by holding to the ice and swam a few feet to her. Towing her, he swam five feet to wadable water. The other boys pulled themselves to wadable water by holding to the ice.
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