Show II Repair lob Job Done Un Under de 1 Water Saves Six From Sudden Death NIGHT boat ride on a calm in inland inland inland in- in A land lake turned into a sudden life death death or-death struggle when a bl broken ken outboard motor threatened to send a party of six crashing down the spillway spillway spill spill- way of the big Imperial Dam at Somerton Arizona I The half dozen young men and girls were vere a mile from shore when the boat oat struck something and the propeller stopped It was found that I the shear pin connecting propeller and motor had been snapped off The Thes s strong rong current running toward the dam dant began drawing the boat and its occupants backward The boatload of merrymakers was now headed toward the whirlpool where the water drops through steel gates into the concrete spillway be be- low One young oung fellow Tex Ferguson son seized a a new shear pin and went overboard into the icy water with a flashlight in his hand As Ferguson hit the water the flashlight loaded with ordinary batteries batteries bat bat- teries went out like a match It left him in the dark groping for the tiny hole in the propeller shaft Meanwhile the boat was picking up momentum rapidly A companion Charles Charles' Green of Somerton grabbed his flashlight which he had recently loaded with fresh batteries He plunged the light into the water so that its brilliant beam shone directly upon the propeller propeller propeller pro pro- peller shaft In a few seconds Ferguson son had completed the repairs The wall of the dam was already looming r ii t 4 z f r Lc iS 2 2 z Charles Green overhead with the spillway only a afew afew afew few yards off orr as the boat get un under er way If it had not been for the fresh batteries in our second flashlight Green said we were finished Probably Probably Probably ably none of us would have survived the plunge into the spillway The accident was found to have been caused by the propeller striking striking striking ing the top of a cottonwood tree one ono of a row that grew out of the top of a a. levee before the lake was ma made e. e |