EXPLORER'S DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21516, 13 June 1933, Page 9

EXPLORER'S DEATH

TRAGEDY NEAR HOME BACK FROM ANTARCTIC COMMANDER CAREY'S FATE [from our own correspondent! LOIfDON. May 12 Commander "William M. Carey, R.N. (retired), fell overboard from the Antarctic scientific ship Discovery 11. when only a day from home. He had heen absent in the southern seas for 19 months. The tragedy occurred in the darkness of the early morning. It is also stated that the ship was in calm waters, but the commander disappeared before there was any chance of rescue. It was officially stated that no information had been received which shed any light on the circumstances of Commander Carey's death. He had been ill for some time, in fact, since the ship left the South Seas, and during the voyage from the Cape he had not been in personal charge. Commander Carey had a long and honourable naval career before taking over the command of Discovery It. He served with the battleship Barham at Jutland. He was born in 1887, and entered the Britannia in 1902. During the war he served _as lieutenant and lieutenant-commander, for the most part in H.M.S. Mistley for mine sweeping and H.M.S. Colne for fishery protection service. From 1926 to 1928 ho commanded H.M.S. Marguerite, and was engaged in training Australian civilian reserves in Australian waters. Commander Carey was one of those who this year stood over the grave of Sir Ernest Shackleton, in the lonely British South Atlantic, island of South Georgia, when a burial service was held 10 years after the explorer's death there. The commander "is yet-another explorer who did not come? back. He leaves, besides his widow, a son and a daughter." His son, Michael, aged 1», is a naval cadet, and is shortly to join tho Frobisher.

Mrs. Carey learned the news of her husband's death at her home at Portsmouth, where she was eagerly waiting for his expected arrival.

In reply to a question in the House of Commons it was stated that it w-ns surmised that Commander Carey, - "who was suffering from a nervous - breakdown, fell overboard in a dazed condition.