Isn’t Christmas supposed to be steeped in tradition?
It does end with the note that he IS married and has children, which implies that he got out and is among the living. I think his death would have lead the story, so I’m going to assume he went on to other mishaps.
I’m also going to assume that the weather just wasn’t right for either the jump or the rescue.
Without a confirmed death they wouldn’t want to say he “was” married.
I don’t think it would be a tragedy if there wasn’t someone dead.
StG
Is that a rare, in-the-wild Kingston Trio reference I spy?
(I thought it was “…and his fate is still unlearned…”)
And Merry Fuckin’ Christmas, kids!
Did he end up upside-down with a fuckin’ fork in his ass?
He probably just joined the Communist Party.
What, a plane crash, a car crash with critical injuries, a sunk boat, and a hundred crying children who saw Santa Claus fall into Boston Harbor isn’t tragedy enough for you? Was it such a more innocent time?
I do get the impression that, as they say, search and rescue had become search and recovery by the time the wire story made it out. It was, recall, December in Boston Harbor; if they hadn’t fished him out yet I doubt they were going to.
Well, 40 mph winds in Boston Harbor can raise swells that will swamp small craft. Esp, if they’re in simply a small boat, instead of a purpose designed rescue boat. The two men dumped into the bay were army, and from the sparse reporting, I think it’s fair to assume they might have grabbed something like a punt which is a common harborside inspection or work craft, or the like, in their haste to try to help.
That part, to me, sounds a lot like some people who hadn’t yet learned that the first thing a would-be rescuer must do is evaluate the conditions to see how best to minimize risk to the rescue crews, to keep from compounding the problem.
And the guys in the car who ran smack into the airplane?
ETA - the only guy who seems to have responded in a cool-headed, intelligent manner is the pilot of the jump plane, who landed, grabbed rescue gear, and took off again in an attempt to drop a life ring, evidently completely on his own initiative. Hats off to you, Mr. Cobb.
ETAAAA - I just realized, some of those children may still be around, telling people about the day Santa Claus died in the water. My dad would have been six, had he been there. As it was, I do believe at that age he’d never seen a plane!
Hey, I’m not saying there weren’t Keystone Kops elements. Just that the one element with the boat in the harbor might be easily explained. 
I do see it really clearly, now that you put it that way - a really good illustration of why you need to assess the situation before you dive in and become a burden to the other rescuers. It’s pretty amazing that nobody got hurt on the plane in the plane/automobile incident, come to think of it - all told, everybody but Mr. Kramer was really lucky.
I don’t suppose anybody has access to Boston microfilm to see if there’s any followup? Like I said, there was (unsurprisingly) nothing else about it in the Columbia, SC paper. Bet it was big news in Boston, though.
Seriously, IMNSHO, it’s the hardest lesson for would-be rescuers to learn.
And I couldn’t. Not in the heat of the moment. I got killed more times in drill situations than I want to admit. There’s something about seeing or knowing that a person is in danger that makes you want to follow the adage: Don’t just stand there, do something!
That what your first instinct to do might be the worst thing possible just doesn’t come to the mind of most people. Usually not without having it pointed out. And sometimes not even then.
But the fact that they were able to go save the guys in the boat and don’t mention the guy handily attached to a billion yards of silk does suggest that Private Kramer was a goner, doesn’t it? Perhaps they just didn’t want the wire story to end on such a downer.
I e-mailed the reference desk at Boston Public - we’ll see if my library credentials get me anywhere. (If it were MY library and you had a specific date like that we’d send you awesome article scans, but I don’t know about those other librarians.)
ETA - I hadn’t thought about it, but come to think of it, some of those would-be rescuers may have been involved in the festivities, maybe even as parents. So you’re standing there with your little girl and Santa goes in the drink and your kid is looking at you - are you not going to get in the boat?
That was my reaction as well - and the festivities may have involved liquid refreshments…
I’m not sure, I took the lyric from here.
Something similar happened in a Married with Children episode. Santa’s parachute failed to open, and he landed in the Bundys’ yard.
I learned it from the Corsairs, actually–their version is a little different from Henry Work’s 1830 original. The chorus as I learned it goes
“Did she ever return? No, she never returned,
And her fate is still unlearned.
Though for years and years, there were fond hearts watching
For the ship that never returned.”
except for the final chorus, in which “still unlearned” changes to “yet unlearned”.
FTR I was trying to quote the Kingston Trio MTA song.
I’ve never heard or seen the MTA song, although it looks like it was based on “The Ship that Never Returned” (which I quoted). I assumed, given the similarity of the lyrics and the whole “lost at sea” angle, that you were referencing the sea song.
The MTA song is funny, though. 