He didn't drown, did he???
Nope, and that's not generally much of a consideration in New Mexico where he came of age, nor in Wyoming, where he later homesteaded.
He was, however, a Navy man during WWI. THat may have been an influence.
There was a time I was commuting between Phoenix and Albuquerque on a fairly regular basis.
Whenever the flight attendant doing the preflight briefing said “In the event of a water landing...” the next words in my mind were “... someone’s horribly lost”.