Wilbert H. De Grave, 36, timber jobber, saved Edward P. Carlson, 55, gardener, and Joseph E. Guay, 53, and Arvid A. Isaacson, 47, both car repairmen, from drowning, Stonington, Michigan, January 24, 1953. Ice broke up over the entire surface of Little Bay de Noc while Carlson, Guay, Isaacson, Robert R. Schaefer, Robert W. Miller, and Clement J. Rivard were fishing two miles from shore; and they were stranded on an ice floe three-quarters of a mile long and a half a mile wide which drifted to open water in Green Bay. De Grave and Jon C. Thorin were informed of the situation; and each took off in a light, single-engined airplane from an airport a mile away. De Grave, who first sighted Carlson and the others, piloted the airplane a mile and a quarter to the floe, the edges of which were disintegrating under the force of waves two feet high moving with a strong wind. He landed 150 feet from the group and called that he could remove only one man at a time, warning the others to stay back. Carlson reached the airplane and climbed aboard. Taking off into the wind, De Grave flew with Carlson to a narrow strip of smooth ice 600 feet long at the east side of the mouth of the bay. De Grave returned to the ice floe and removed Guay. Shortly afterward Thorin reached the ice floe in his airplane, which could carry two passengers. Thorin called for two men, and Schaefer and Miller ran to the airplane and entered the cabin. Returning to the strip, Thorin brought his airplane to a brief stop as Schaefer and Miller got out. Meanwhile De Grave had retraced his course to the floe and taken Isaacson aboard. Thorin again flew to the ice floe, which had drifted nearly two miles from shore, and taxied to opposite Rivard, who got into the airplane. De Grave completed a flight to the strip with Isaacson. A fairly heavy snow was falling as Thorin and Rivard approached the shore, and Thorin’s airplane almost crashed into a dense clump of trees before he landed safely. The stranded men were treated for exposure and recovered. 43052-3923
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