Calvin L. Markwardt, 22, salesman, helped to save William P. Skinner, Sr., 29, realtor, his wife and four children, and others during a hurricane, Freeport, Texas, July 24, 1959. When rising waters caused by hurricane Debra trapped the Skinners and others at a beach settlement on San Luis Island between the Gulf of Mexico and a connecting canal, Markwardt and Frederick A. Palmer, Sr., volunteered to go to their aid in a 20-foot outboard motorboat. During the rescue efforts, which lasted about eight hours, the wind increased to hurricane velocity, with gusts of over 100 m.p.h. and with heavy rainfall. From a marina 4.5 miles away the two men, with Markwardt piloting the boat, proceeded along the canal to the beach settlement. They took the six members of the Skinner family and five other persons back to the marina and then returned to the beach, the wind creating increasingly rough water in the canal. With 14 persons aboard for the second trip, Palmer decided to wait at the beach rather than overload the boat further. On the way back to the marina the boat began shipping water from five foot waves, but Markwardt delivered the occupants safely and once more started back to the beach. Wind conditions then were such that he could proceed only slowly, and three times the craft was blown backward. Because some persons had decided to remain in the most substantial of the beach houses, Markwardt and Palmer left with the last two persons. Unable by that time to sight any landmarks, they missed the channel of the canal and proceeded over flooded land for about a mile until they got their bearings. At one time the boat tilted precariously and shipped much water. With difficulty they reached the marina at the height
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