Heroic yellow Labrador saves man drowning in South Carolina river

Several friends working in Beaufort County, South Carolina, decided to take their lunch break last Wednesday by going boating on the Okatie River. But the boat took a bad turn and capsized and tossed 24-year-old Mason Ringer and his two friends into the 58-degree water. “One of the guys went to stand up to change his position in the boat, and the wind came and the boat flipped over and put all of us in the water,” Ringer told InsideEdition.com.

According to time.com, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office reported that Ringer and his two co-workers were refurbishing a nearby dock and had taken out a john boat during their lunch break. When the boat overturned, one man managed to swim to safety.  Another of Ringer’s friends was pulled from the river by three men in another boat. Ringer was having difficulty making it back to the dock though.

He tried making the swim back to the dock; but swimming against the river’s current made that task virtually impossible. Yahoo! News quoted Ringer as saying, “I took my shoes off and ripped my hoodie. I got 75 percent across, but because the water was cold I started to cramp up in my legs.”

Ringer said that he felt like he wasn’t going to be able to reach the dock and basically just stopped swimming.  He said that by that point, he’d been in the water for about an hour.

“I rolled over on my back and I closed my eyes and said a prayer to God asking him to help me somehow,” Ringer said. “Then I heard the dog bark on the dock.”

That barking dog was “Woody,” a seven-year-old yellow Labrador retriever.  Woody just happened to be on that nearby dock and jumped into the river and started swimming toward Ringer who was now in the throes of hypothermia.

“When I saw the dog was coming in, I was skeptical thinking I am going to drown this dog while he was trying to save me,” Ringer said. “It was almost effortless for him to pull me in.”

Jason DuBose is Woody’s owner and was with his yellow Lab on the dock when Woody jumped into the choppy waters and started swimming toward Ringer. The Daily Mail quoted Woody’s owner as saying that Ringer, “… was essentially going under and he was yelling for help. The dog was on the dock and jumped in the water and swam out to him. He grabbed a hold of it and it turned around and swam him back to a different dock where he was able to get out.”

Ringer said the whole experience was a miracle and that he owes Woody a big steak.

All the survivors from that capsized boat have fully recovered from the ordeal.

~ Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today   /   Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter