The News And Views

Family Of Four
Escapes Drowning
In Wilson Bay

A family of four narrowly escaped drowning Saturday afternoon when their outboard motor boat struck a submerged log and overturned in Wilson's Bay.

They were Mr. and Mrs. R. F. Talman and daughters, Peggy, age 7, and Jane Ann, age 5.

The children had on life preservers and thereby kept from submerging. The family held on to the side of the upturned boat until W. M. Mangum and W. B. Hurst and Jack Burcham who were nearby and saw the boat, a colored man, Major Spencer, in a boat nearby, also helped. The family was in the water about 15 minutes.

Talman said that he assumed the log was one of those which have been at the bottom of the bay for years and had been lost to the waters during the operation of the Jacksonville Lumber company. He assumed that power tugs and pulpwood barges plying the channel had sucked the old logs from the bottom and that they were now floating just beneath the surface. In that event, speedboat enthusiasts should be careful in their runs from the Atlantic Coast Line bridge past the old lumber company site.