The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-07-25
HOW LUCIEN YOUNG WON
THE MEDAL OF A HERO

The Ocean.-Though commissioned
officers of the navy are never made
honor-medalists, life-saving medals are
frequently awarded to them. The first
of this class was an officer, Ensign
Lucien Young. He is now a captain.
stationed at Mare Island Navy Yard,
California. And he has gained dis
tinction not only by his ability as a
naval officer, but also by his work as
an author.
The second member Of the navy to
win the life-saving medal was an ordi-
nary seaman, Antoine Williams.
These two men, Ensign Young and
Seaman Williams, won their honors on
one and the same occasion, while bat.
Ting together with the breakers in
desperate effort TO save the lives OF
thir shipmates.
They sailed on the gunboat Huron,
leaving Hampton Roads on November
%. 1877, bound for Cuba The COM
mander of this ill-starred warship was
Captain Ryan, and she carried one
hundred and thirty-three officers and
men. Only thirty-four of that ships
company lived to tell the tale of ths
last voyage of the Huron.
How the gunboat came to be cast
up on the North Carolina shore just
north of Hatteras has never been ex-
planned, The wreck of the Huron,
which gave Ensign Young and Seaman
Williams a chance to show the stuff
they were made of, remains TO this day
one Of the profound mysteries of the
sea.
After leaving Hampton Roads the
Huron, headed on absolutely the right
course, picked up the proper buoys to
seward, and when night came passed
the Currituck Light, the last Of the
shore beacons All this time. and
through half the night, the vessel, ac-
cording to her compasses, steamed far
Their and farther out to sea
At one o'clock that night she was,
so all the officers firmly believed, fully
seventy-five miles from shore. At that
hour the two wheelmen unquestionably
were holding her true to the course, as
laid by Captain Ryan, and as approved
now by the officer OF the deck. AS
two bells were struck the lookouts in
the bow shouted in turn: "All's weli!
Yet hardly had the words left the
lips of the confident watchmen when
mighty wave, after lifting the warship
high in the air, pitched her, bow on,
into the sands in the shoals at Nag $
Head, north Of Hatteras. When the
crash came Captain Ryan rushed on
deck. One amazed look around told
him the story, and he was heard TO
cry:
MY God! how did we get here?'
How. indeed? What unknown cur
rent had driven the ship so many miles
out of her course? She had apparently
been carried broadside TO until she
struck.
The very wave that drove her into
the ocean bed washed at least score
of men overheard. Other waves IN
rapid succession broke over the ship.
each one sweeping away more OF the
officers and crew. So passed five ter
rfbIe hours. At daybreak the Huron
was a total wreck.
With the coming of light Ensign
Young and Seaman Williams undertook
the desperate enterprise by which they
hoped to save all the men who. remain
| ed on the wreck. They jumped into
the sea, swan to an india-rubber raft
| Cbalsa) that was entangled in mass
of spars on the starboard bow, and sue
| ceeded. after heroic efforts, in freeing
il. On this raft they meant to carry
| a line to shore.
Launching themselves upon 1t, they
| tried to paddle forward, but were sweep
aft. capsized, and nearly drowned re
gaining their hold on the rart' theS
once more swan shoreward. this time
pushing it before them But again the
| rafr was torn from them and they were