A man drowned Sunday as he tried to rescue a child adrift in a boat in a Twin City pond.

Emanuel County Coroner Randy Love said emergency responders were called to a private pond on Durden Road around 

2:15 p.m. Sunday, where they found Alfred Leonard Allen, 55, dead at the scene.

Allen was teaching an 11-year-old girl "how to row (a boat)," he said. He had been working with the child close to shore, and she decided she was ready to try her hand at rowing away from shore. The boat drifted, the child became alarmed, and Allen swam out to help her make her way back.

"She stood up in the boat, it was rocking and he thought she might fall out," he said.

However, "cold water temperatures" caused Allen to encounter some difficulty, and halfway to the boat, he went under, Love said. His death was ruled as an "accidental cold-water drowning." 

The child was rescued safely.

Herald reporter Holli Deal Saxon may be reached at (912) 489-9414.