BRAVE SAILOR DROWNED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17267, 17 September 1919, Page 8

BRAVE SAILOR DROWNED.

SEAMAN ON LOST SHIP. ANTARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. WAR RECORD IN NAVY. [BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH. Tuesday. A particularly -well-known member of _ the crew of the Tainui, who lost his life, * was Seaman Charles -Williams, D.S.M., son of Captain H. Williams, of Christchurch. His career was marked by daunt- . less courage, aad the 38 years of his life were crowded with adventure. Williams entered the merchant service on a schooner engaged in the New Zeaf land trade in 1897, when 16 years of * shortly after leaving school at Lyttelton. He received his first naval training as a 1 member of the New Zealand Naval Rer serve, and later served on H M.S. Tauranga. It was on board this boat that he first revealed his reckless courage in succouring the crew during a terrific' gale. In 1909 Williams received lys discharge from the navy, and a year later he went to the Antarctic in the Terra Nova. In a terrific storm the pumps of the little f ship became choked, and Williams went down between the boilers in the blister- . ing heat, and removed the obstruction. It was the means of saving the ship from foundering. He had been twice to the Antarctic, first with Captain Scott, and afterwards with the relief expedition under Commander Evans. He possessed the Antarctic medal, and that of the ' Geographical Society. At the outbreak of war he volunteered ' for service with the" North Sea Fleet as stoker. Williams w.is awarded the Dist tinguished Service Medal for conspicuous » bravery during an engagement off Dover, * between H.M.S. Broke and H.M S. Swift , and six German warships. Williams- was serving under Commander Evans on the Broke. Feeling secure in their superiority ' of numbers, the Germans essayed to sink their opponents. The two British boats were surrounded, and put up a magnificent fight.. Stoker Williams was asleep in his hammock when the fight begun. * He went on deck, and devoted his atten- * tion to carrying the wounded to safety below the deck, work which was attended by extreme danger. Commander Evans recommended him for the D.S.M for his bravery. Previously Williams was on H.M S. Viking, which struck a mine in the North Sea, and later he was on H.M.S. Conquest. He took part jn the ! Zeebrugge fight, and was one of the I volunteers from the Broke who landed on the mole there.