LIFE SAVING AWARDS
Harry with weak nerves. Some of them came with such force that they leapt right over the boat, and the air was dark with water flying a dozen yards high over us in broad solid sheets, which fell with a roar like the explosion of a gun ten and a dozen fathoms ahead. But we took no notice of these seas even when we were in the thick of the broken waters, and all the hands holding on to the thwarts for dear life. Every thought was upon the mast that was growing bigger and clearer, and sometimes when a sea hove us high we could just see the hull, with the water as white as milk flying over it. The mast was what they call 'bright,' that is, scraped and varnished, and we knew that if there was anything living aboard that doomed ship we would find it on that mast; and we strained our eyes with all our might, but could see nothing that looked like a man. But on a sudden I caught sight of a length of canvas streaming out of the top, and all of us seeing it we raised a shout, and a few minutes after we saw the men. They were all dressed in yellow oilskins, and the mast being of that colour was the reason why we did not see them sooner. They looked a whole mob of people, and one of us roared out, 'All hands are there, men!' and I answered, 'Aye, the whole ship's company, and we'll have them all!' for though, as we afterwards knew, there were only eleven of them, yet, as I have said, they looked a great number huddled together in that top, and I made sure the whole ship's company were there. By this time we were pretty close to the ship, and a fearful wreck she looked, with her mainmast and mizzenmast gone, and her bulwarks washed away, and great lumps of timber and planking ripping out of her and going overboard with every pour of the seas. We let go our anchor fifteen fathoms to windward of her, and as we did so we saw the poor fellows unlashing themselves and dropping one by one over the top into the lee rigging. As we veered out the cable and drove down under her stem, I shouted to the men on the wreck to bend a piece of wood on to a line and throw it overboard for us to lay hold of. They did this, but they had to get aft first, and I feared for the poor half-perished creatures again and again as I saw them scrambling along the lee rail, stopping and holding on as the mountainous seas swept over the hull, and then creeping a bit further aft in the pause. There was a horrible muddle of spars and tom canvas and rigging under her lee, but we could not guess what a fearful sight was there until our hawser having been made fast to the wreck, we hauled the Life-boat close under her quarter. There looked to be a whole score of dead bodies knocking about among the spars. It stunned me for a moment, for I had thought all hands were in the foretop, and never dreamt of so many lives having been lost Seventeen were drowned, and there they were, most of them, and the body of the captain lashed to the head of the mizenmast, so as to look as if he were leaning over it, his head stiff upright and his eyes watching us, and the stir of the seas made him appear to be struggling to get to us. I thought he was alive, and cried to the men to hand him in, but someone said he was killed when the mizenmast fell, and had been dead four or five hours. This was dreadful shock; I never remember the like of it. I can't hardly get those fixed eyes out of my sight, sir, and I lie awake for hours of a night, and so does Tom Cooper, and others of us, seeing those bodies tom by the spars and bleeding, floating in the water alongside the miserable ship.
Well, sir, the rest of this lamentable story has been told by the mate of the vessel, and I don't know that I could add anything to it. We saved the eleven men, and I have since heard that all of them are doing well. If I may speak, as coxswain of the Life-boat, I would like to say that all hands concerned in this rescue, them in the tug as well as the crew of the boat, did what might be expected of English sailors - for such they are, whether you call some of them boatmen or not; and I know in my heart, and say it without fear, that from the hour of leaving Ramsgate Harbour to the moment when we sighted the wreck's mast there was only one thought in all of us, and that was that the Almighty would give us the strength and direct us how to save the lives of the poor fellows to whose assistance we had been sent.’
For their great bravery in saving life, under terrible conditions, the R.N.L.I. Medal in Gold was awarded to Coxswain Charles Edward Fish and R.N.L.I. Medals in Silver were awarded to eleven members of the lifeboat crew and to the master and six members of the crew of the Vulcan. The R.N.L.I. Medals were presented at a ceremony at the Ramsgate Coastguard Station on 11 February 1881 by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh.
Immediately after the valiant rescue, a subscription was started for the crews of the Vulcan and Bradford. The money raised was in part used to strike this special medal for award to the crews.
1353
S.S. DRUMMOND CASTLE MEDAL 1896, silver, unnamed as issued, suspension claw detached but present, otherwise extremely fine
£120-160
The Castle Mail Packets Company liner S.S. Drummond Castle, homeward bound from Natal and Cape Town, struck a reef off Ushant in a fog on the night of 16 June, 1896. Of the 143 passengers and 104 officers and crew, only three escaped. Silver medals were struck with the approval of Queen Victoria for award to the Breton fishermen and other inhabitants of Brest, Ushant, and Molene who helped in rescuing the survivors, and in the recovery and burial of those lost.
1354
NORTHERN COUNTIES LIFE SAVING MEDAL, 45mm, silver, the obverse featuring the shields of the County Towns of Lancaster, York, Chester, and Stafford, with roses, thistles, and shamrocks between, the previous embossed inscription (Northern Counties Athletic Association (?)) erased and subsequently neatly engraved ‘Presented to Samuel Blyde for saving two boys in the Ship Canal July 18. 1903.’, the reverse engraved with intertwined initials ‘S.B.’ within wreath, with scroll suspension, suspension claw slightly loose, edge bruising, good very fine
£80-120
www.dnw.co.uk
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