Lloyd R. Holman, 27, laborer, attempted to save Henry W. Ogan, 72, orchardist, from drowning, Santa Cruz, California, May 5, 1935. Ogan fell from a rock cliff that rose precipitously 20 feet above the water into Monterey Bay and drifted in deep, turbulent water. Holman removed his clothing except his underwear, descended a fissure that sloped steeply down from the top of the cliff toward a ledge four feet wide two feet above the water. At a point 10 feet above the water he slipped, and he then dived to avoid falling. He rose 10 feet from the cliff, swam 40 feet to Ogan, who then was making weak swimming motions, clasped him in one arm, and tried to swim toward the ledge. Making little headway against an undercurrent, he placed his legs around Ogan and swam 55 feet to the ledge and pulled Ogan, who was unconscious, upon it. Meanwhile Francis R. Scofield and Ogan’s son-in-law lowered a rope to the ledge. As Holman reached for the rope, he and Ogan were swept off the ledge by a ground swell and became separated. Holman swam 15 feet to the ledge and got upon it, noted Ogan’s position, dived and swam 20 feet to Ogan, and then supported Ogan and swam to the ledge. Meanwhile Scofield and Ogan’s son-in-law descended the fissure to the ledge, the rope then being held by another man at the top. They helped to lift Ogan upon the ledge and then aided Holman to get upon it. As Holman and Scofield were putting the rope around Ogan, they and Ogan were swept off the ledge by a ground swell; and Holman, having been thrown against the cliff, was dazed. Holman drifted 30 feet from the cliff and then got hold of a life-preserver on a rope, one end of the rope being held by men on the top of the cliff. With the aid of the life-preserver and the rope Holman swam 150 feet to low shore at one end of the cliff. Scofield and Ogan were drowned.
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