The PT 109’s skipper grasped the strap of McMahon’s kapok in his teeth, and at about 2 P.M. began towing him in the direction of the small island, swimming in intervals of fifteen minutes or so, then stopping to rest. “The skipper swam the breaststroke,” remembered McMahon, “carrying me on his back, with the leather strap of my kapok clenched between his teeth.”
