As he grabbed for it the third time, the big charge lurched, and falling, came near crushing him. But he caught his footing, and on the fourth attempt got a firm grip on it. Exerting all his strength, he heaved the "can" up on end, and then sat on it and held it down. Holding on firmly, he managed to retain his grip until lines could be run to him, and the bomb lashed down. Mackenzie had risked his life, but he had saved his ship and shipmates. Recommending that the Medal of Honor be bestowed on Mackenzie, the first reservist to whom it was awarded, the commanding officer of the _Remlik_ said: Mackenzie, in acting as he did, exposed his life and prevented serious accident to the ship and probably loss of the ship and entire crew. Had this depth-charge exploded on the quarter-deck with the sea and wind that existed at the time, there is no doubt that the ship would have been lost. There was no more striking instance of resourcefulness and good seamanship than the double service of the Americans in rescuing the survivors of the French light cruiser _Dupetit Thouars_, and salvaging and taking 350 miles to port the American steamship _Westward Ho_. The steamer was in a convoy from New York to the Bay of Biscay which had been escorted across the Atlantic by the French cruiser. At 10 o'clock, the night of August 7, 1918, the _Dupetit Thouars_ was torpedoed, and soon sank. The destroyers _Winslow_, _Porter_, _Drayton_, _Tucker_, _Fanning_ and _Warrington_ went to her aid and rescued the survivors. The next morning at 6:40 the destroyers caught a distress signal, found that the _Westward Ho_ had been torpedoed, and took aboard her crew. The American yachts _May_ and _Noma_ and the French sloop _Cassiopee_ soon afterwards arrived and found the ship still afloat. But she was apparently in a sinking condition, so deep in the water that attempts to tow her failed. A volunteer crew from the _May_ headed by Lieutenant T. Blau, went aboard and though they had no experience with oil burning or turbine machinery, got up steam, started the pumps, and at last got the engines going. She was so deep in the water forward that they could not make much headway steering the ship bow first. So the volunteer crew turned her around, and with the two yachts towing and the French sloop looking out for submarines, ran that big steamship backwards three hundred and fifty miles, and got her safely into harbor.