Thomas E. McNulty, 38, painter, saved Jesse Freitas, 16, millhand, and Joseph Fragoso, 15, clerk, from drowning, Fall River, Massachusetts, January 21, 1912. Jesse and Joseph broke through the ice on Mount Hope Bay at a point 400 feet from shore, where the water was over 20 feet deep. McNulty ran across the ice toward them from a point 500 feet from the hole. When he had gone 150 feet, the ice broke, but he threw himself forward and went into the water only to his waist. He climbed up on the ice and continued to the hole. Jesse had climbed up until the upper part of his body rested on the ice. McNulty took off his coat, lay on the ice, and cast his coat toward Jesse, and the latter grasped a sleeve. McNulty pulled Jesse out of the hole, and Jesse ran to shore. McNulty worked his way a little closer to the hole and cast his coat toward Joseph. Joseph grasped the coat, and McNulty pulled him up on the ice. The ice broke, and Joseph fell backward into the water, jerking the coat out of McNulty’s grasp. McNulty immediately slid feet first into the water, as he feared the current would carry Joseph under the ice. When Joseph came to the surface, McNulty grasped him and told him to hold to the ice, but Joseph grabbed McNulty’s collar so tightly that he interfered with McNulty’s breathing. They struggled a moment before McNulty broke Joseph’s hold. Other men pushed a boat into the hole, and a man got into the boat and helped Joseph and McNulty into it. McNulty had been in the water two minutes. 8028-921
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