Mauritius, Rescue of the Strathmore, 1876, a gold medal for Life Saving, presented to Chief...

The Extremely Important Strathmore Rescue gold Medal Mauritius, Rescue of the Strathmore, 1876, a gold medal for Life Saving, presented to Chief Officer F.C. Swain, issued by the inhabitants of Mauritius, shield of arms rev. inscription in thirteen lines (For Heroic Conduct of the Captain, Officers, and Crew of the American Barque Young Phoenix in the Rescue of the Survivors from the Ship Strathmore, Wrecked on the Crozet Islands 1875), 43mm, 61.68g. Small edge knock, otherwise lightly toned with a satin finish, good extremely fine and of the highest rarity; accompanied by original presentation case [Graded by NGC as MS 63] £4,000-£5,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Spink Auction (New York), 24-5 September 2015, lot 271. The sailing ship Strathmore left Gravesend on 19 April 1875 for New Zealand carrying 51 passengers, 38 crew and a cargo of railway iron and gunpowder. On July 1 the ship sailed into thick fog in the South Indian Ocean and was wrecked on the Crozet Islands. Captain Macdonald and the first officer were washed overboard, but the second officer and crew managed to launch two lifeboats, with survivors taken ashore onto one of the islands. They remained there for seven months until rescued by Captain D. L. Gifford of the American whaler Young Phoenix on 21 January 1876. Twenty of the survivors were transferred to the Sierra Morena and landed in Ceylon, while Captain Gifford took the rest to Mauritius. A small run of silver and bronze medals were issued to the crew members of the Phoenix. This particular example in gold, however, is the only known of it’s type, having come up for private sale just once in the last fifty years.