A STRENUOUS LIFE

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 22 May 1917, Page 7

A STRENUOUS LIFE

INCIDENTS IN STOKER WILLIAMS' CAREER. Some interesting particulars of the career of Stoker Charles Williams (son of Captain H. Williams, of Lyttelton), and brother of Mrs. W.Gray, of Marnui, Wellington, who has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for bravery in connection with the destroyers' naval action near Dover on the night of April 20th-21st, are o-iven by the Diinedin "Star." i° _ .

Stoker Williams, like his father, went to sea at an early age. Heloined the New Zealand Naval Reserve many years ago, and Tater on served on board H.M.S. Tauranga, when that warship was a unit of the Pacific squadron fourteen or fifteen years ago. On this ship he distinguished himself during a storm. Williams received his discharge from the Navy in 19t59. He then followed his occupation as a seaman for some time on various steamers engaged on the New Zealand coast. On the arrival of the Antarctic exploration ship Terra Nova in New Zealand in the year 1910, Williams immediately applied for a berth. He had a splendid record as a first-class seaman and was soon accepted.* He justified his inclusion as a member of the Terra Nova's crew by the fact that by his bravery he was the' means of saving the ship from foundering. It will be remembered that when the Terra ; Nova had almost reached the Antarctic regions from Lyttelton with Captain Scott's expedition the ship ran into a terrific cyclone and, being deeply laden, received a severe buffeting. It is mentioned in Captain Scott's diary that when the Terra Nova was battling against the storm and the ship almost foundering the main pumps became choked. The vessel was then in a very precarious position. It was at this stage that Stoker Williams again came to the fore. Captain Scott mentions that it was this brave so.ilor who volunteered to go below and make an attempt to clear the obstruction. It was necessary for the man undertaking the work to chop through a bulkhead in order to reach the place where the ' pumps were blocked. Williams wormed his way below and chopped a hole in the bulkhead and an officer was able to put-his arm through the hole made by Williams and clear the obstruction. The pumps were again set to work, and Captain Scott recognised that Williams' great feat of r _eiy3urance undoubtedly saved the Terra Nova frpm foundering. After Captain Scott's ill-fated expedition returned to Lyttelton from the Antarctic, Williams received his discharge, and then worked on various steamers on the coastal trade. A few weeks after the outbreak of war he wrote to Commander Evans, R.N., asking for a berth in the Navy. On receiving a reply he proceeded to England, and was appointed to a destroyer. He served on several of these vessels and saw a preat deal of exciting fighting with the German ships. He subsequently went, to the Dardanelles and took an active part in all the hard fighting which the British and French navies went through while bombarding the Turkish forts in --.n endeavour to force an entrance to the Narrows in conjunction with the '■finding of the Allied troops on Galiipoli.