Evening star., 1935-06-23
By Commodore Wiltred
E. L0ngteHOsv.

"\WO IluIlOTeu ydTOS 4IOIu oIlOIc
a swimmer gracefully cavorts
in the water off a nationally
Il known bathing beach. His
strong, overarm strokes excite the
envy of less gifted bathers who are
forced to conf1ne their water maneu-
vers to wading and an occasional ride
with the shallow waves But all at once
something happens to our ambitious
swimmer. Perhaps he has a cramp,
or possibly he inhaled wave. At any
rate, he is crying for aid and his
arms thrash the water.
Noticing our hero's plight rescuer
makes his way to the swimmers side.
but the drowning man gets a strangle
hold on him. Whereupon the reScuer
'rbusts' the victim on the jaw and
then, when the latter is unconscious,
transports him safely to the shore.
This sort of thing makes good read
ing. It's familiar yarn to most OF
us. Too familiar because it's far re-
moved from the facts. I'm using the
incident only because it strikingly
illustrates one of the commonest pop
ular fallacieS about saving the lives
of drowning people-namely that you
should "bust" a drowning man on the
law to render him unconscious,
granted that he gets violent and
achieves a strangle hold on you.
THERE are almost countless other
l. silly notions about hfesaving that
ought to be cleared up. But I'll take
time to mention only the outstanding
ones-10 all told-and then we can
consider such important matters as
methods of approaching struggling
swimmers, breaking their desperate
holds, how to tow them to shore and
ways to revive apparently drowned
persons.
Taking up fallacy No. about
''busting" drowning man in the jaw
there was q time not so long ago
when this procedure was utilized
rather widely. But a professional
litesaver today might be booted out
of his job If it became known that
he practised the flst-to-chin system.
The first purpose of any water rescuer
must be to establish confidence, ana
he certainly can't do that by such
rough-and- tumble tactics. Moreover,
it's well nigh impossible, anyway, to
strike an effective blow under such
conditions. Simple common sense
dictates that a victims feet must be
fairly well planted on the ground
before he can be rocked to sleep.
Finally, assuming that you have
struck a drowning man while rescuing
him and he dies, for whatever reason,
you may have an embarrassing time
explaining the why's and wherefores
to the proper authorities.
Fallacy No. { assumes that If you
see q person drowning, the first thing
YOU should do is 10 dive in after him.
On the contrary, you should not dive
except as last resort A good rule
to follow is one that Red Cross au-
thor:ties advise in their slogan: Row
use a boat # available; throw-a
life buoy if no boat is available; go
yourself when equipment is not at
hand; tow to safety by one Of the
standard carries" The idea behind
this slogan is that it's far safer and
wiser to use other methods than div
ing, whenever possible Thus you
won't be endangerioZ two lives in
stead Of saving ole.
One Of the silliest popular notions
fallacy No. 3-holds that person
struggling for his lite in the water
comes up three times before drown
ing. The truth is that he may come
up many times, or not at all, de-
pending on various conditions. There
fore, if you deem it advisable 20 dive
at all, dive for MIN at once, granted
that he has gone under water, and
wait-and mayoe wait indefinitely
for him to reappear.