Roy Noel Bower died attempting to save Eugene W. and Walter O. McWilliams and Gene K. McLaughlin from drowning, DePoe Bay, Oregon, October 4, 1936. While Eugene, 48, his son Walter, 15, and McLaughlin, 17, were fishing in the Pacific Ocean from Eugene’s boat, fog became dense and the water became rough. Eugene steered toward DePoe Bay, but breakers 15 feet high and the fog prevented their entering it. With difficulty, Eugene steered to a whistle buoy, and they tied up to it. Boatmen on shore feared Eugene might be unable to find the buoy. Bower, 40, fisherman and boat pilot, who other times had steered to the buoy in heavy fog or in rough water, set out in his boat to render aid, accompanied by John Alfred Chambers. It was almost dark. Bower steered to the outer bay then toward its mouth. He and Chambers reached Eugene’s boat and called to Eugene to follow them. Eugene cut the line attached to the buoy and followed Bower’s boat toward the bay. The boats, 50 feet apart, passed through one line of breakers. Eugene and his companions then saw a breaker strike Bower’s boat at the stern, and the boat disappeared. Eugene returned to the buoy and moored his boat. The next morning, he reached the inner bay. Later that morning, Chambers was found three miles off shore and five miles from the bay. He was drowned. A quarter-mile away, Bower was found on the wrecked boat, entangled in trolling lines. He was dead.
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