Charles A. W. Hansen

Charles A. W. Hansen, 29, deckhand, helped to save Joe A. Jones, 37, bank cashier, and 36 others from drowning, Galveston, Texas, July 21, 1909. Jones and the others were on a fishing pier, erected over a jetty in the Gulf of Mexico three miles from shore, which was threatened with destruction by a storm. The wind was blowing at a velocity of 36 m.p.h., and the waves were running 20 feet high. A pilot boat went to the scene, but it could not get nearer than 75 feet to the pier. Hansen and another of the crew volunteered to man a yawl and go to the rescue of the men on the pier, and a yawl was lowered. It was tossed about like a cork, but, with great difficulty, the men got to within four feet of the pier and took off four men. They made eight or nine trips from the pilot boat to the pier, from 15 to 40 minutes being necessary for a trip, when the pier was dashed to pieces and the remaining men were thrown into the water. Those men succeeded in grasping wreckage, and all were picked up.