William Ahern (Medal of Honor)

He crawled over the hot boilers to isolate a damaged boiler.

William Ahern earned the Medal of Honor aboard USS Puritan on July 1, 1897. A watertender in the United States Navy, he acted when a crown sheet in one of the ship’s boilers collapsed.

Wrapped in wet cloths to protect his face and arms, Ahern entered the fireroom and crawled over the boilers to close an auxiliary stop valve. By isolating the damaged boiler, he removed the danger of disabling the others.

Born in Ireland in 1861, Ahern was also known as William O’Hearn. He was accredited to New York for his award and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Medal of Honor citation

On board the U.S.S. Puritan at the time of the collapse of one of the crown sheets of boiler E of that vessel, 1 July 1897. Wrapped in wet cloths to protect his face and arms, Ahern entered the fireroom, crawled over the tops of the boilers and closed the auxiliary stop valve, disconnecting boiler E and removing the danger of disabling the other boilers.