Personal information

Son of Captain and Mrs. David Evans, of Moneifion, Lon Penrhos. Dewi Evans went to sea in 1934 joining the Menestheus at Liverpool as a deck boy. The voyages of this vessel took him to Japan and other Far Eastern destinations, but he then remained ashore for two years until returning to sea with the outbreak of war in 1939. In August 1940 he joined the City of Sydney as junior engineer and after two uneventful voyages transferred to the sister ship City of Winchester in April 1941. Dewi was in his cabin when this ship was torpedoed on 9 May 1941, reported to the chief engineer who immediately instructed him to report on deck to prepare for abandoning ship. He assisted with lowering the lifeboats and found himself in a boat in charge of the second officer, a gentlemen whom he had not met previously. After a few hours, when things had settled down, Dewi found himself in the stern of the boat sitting next to the second officer, who asked him from where in Wales he came from. It transpired that the wife of the officer came from the same small village as him and they lived there since their marriage. Unfortunately the prevailing tide and currents were not helpful and for over a week the boat drifted one way and then another. The weather, however, was good and the sea calm, but the men were feeling the effects of having very little to eat or drink in the restricted space of the lifeboat. Just as things were getting quite serious they were rescued by Herma on the tenth day and taken to Takoradi, from where they were sent to Accra to await repatriation to the UK. Dewi was put up in a small hotel and one day summoned from his room to meet a Mr. and Mrs. Evans. He went downstairs slowly thinking someone was playing a joke on him but was surprised to met a Welsh manager of a West African gold mine and his wife. They were anxious to help the seamen who had lost everything apart from the clothes they were wearing and invited their Welsh namesake to their home where he stayed for three days before boarding a ship that took him back to the UK. Dewi spent some time convalescing in hospital at Cardiff before returning home to Morfa Nefyn wearing the clothes the Evans family had kindly given him.