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Auction: 11007 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 190

Royal National Lifeboat Institution Medal, silver, type 2 1862-1903, obverse: head of Queen Victoria with chaple of oak leaves facing left, with clasp for ´Second Service´, reverse dated ´14th Decr. 1893´ (Mr. James Woodgate Voted 10th December 1891.), engraved in mixed styles, good very fine, with uniface ´dolphin´ suspension Estimate £ 700-900 James Woodgate, Coxswain, Dover Lifeboat, citation reads, ´In consideration of his valuable services during the twenty-one years he has occupied that position (Coxswain). During that period Coxswain Woodgate had been out in the boat sixteen times on service and assisted to save twenty-four lives.´ Prominent among the services were those to the sloop Edith (1876), the barque Chin Chin (1881), the ship Macduff (1886) and the Government Dredger No. 18 (1891). Second Service, citation reads, 20-21 November 1893: The Norwegian barque Johanne Marie went aground on a sandbank in the early morning of the 20th, half a mile offshore at Lade, north of Dungeness, Kent. The morning was spent in efforts by the Littlestone and Dungeness lifeboats to try to reach her but, at 2pm, a telegram asking to help was received at Dover. The self-righting lifeboat Lewis Morice was launched and taken to the scene under tow by the steam tug Lady Vita. She arrived at 5.30pm. No attempt was possible that night, due to the intense darkness, torrential rain and a violent easterly gale. The lifeboat remained in the area all that wet and bitterly cold night until it sighted the wreck at 7am. Mr. Woodgate went alongside and snatched seven survivors from the rigging (four others had drowned), and passed them to the tug which towed the lifeboat back to Dover. This service lasted 28 hours.´ The barque Chin Chin, 342 tons, was built at Sunderland in 1868, owned by W.T. Pugsley and traded out of London. The iron full-rigged sailing ship MacDuff, 1,235 tons, was built and owned by McMillan´s of Dumbarton in 1877 and registered in Glasgow. The wooden barque Johanne Marie, 633 tons, was built at Bremerhaven in 1862 and owned by Westergaard & Co. of Christiania (the former name of the Norwegian capital Oslo). Provenance: J.B. Hayward Collection, November 1995

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£3,000