Wilson R. Hoskins saved Marjorie A. Downer from drowning, Greenspond, Newfoundland, April 26, 1930. From the shore of Greenspond Harbor, Miss Downer, 19, walked on drifting cakes of ice to aid her sister, who had fallen from a cake into water eight feet deep. The cakes were two feet square and three feet thick, and there was crushed ice between them. When Miss Downer was 10 feet from shore, she fell between two cakes, and only the back of her head appeared at the surface. Hoskins, 21, laborer, who had a club-foot and was heavily clothed and wore rubber boots, ran 1,200 feet to the scene and jumped from a wharf six feet down to the ice, dropping between cakes five feet from shore. With great difficulty he made a path between the cakes, swimming 25 feet to Miss Downer, and after repeated efforts turned her on her back. Miss Downer’s sister then was 12 feet from him and was holding one end of a rope that had been thrown to her from shore. Another part of the rope was tossed to Hoskins, and the three were pulled in. Miss Downer was unconscious and was revived. Hoskins was weak and chilled.
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