 The rescue was marked by the "Escanaba"'s historic first use of rescue swimmers clad in survival suits to aid survivors, who were too weakened by shock or hypothermia in the icy water to pull themselves up cargo nets or sea ladders to the safety and warmth of rescuers' ships, or even to hold on to ropes cast to them from the rescue vessel.By way of the lines the rescue swimmers tied around those who were having trouble helping themselves, many struggling survivors who--debilitated by the cold--would have otherwise died, were hauled aboard the "Escanaba" by crewmen on deck.Even those in the water who appeared to be dead were harnessed by the retrieval swimmers and pulled aboard — indeed, it was found that only 12 of the 50 apparently dead victims thus brought aboard by the retrieval teams actually turned out to be dead.