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Auction: 4020 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 573

Mercantile Marine Service Association Medal, silver, 45mm x 38mm, reverse engraved 'To Mr. W.F.D. Taylor Chief Officer H.M.S. 'Pavonia' for conspicuous services and devotion to duty March 1899', later claw and ring suspension, extremely fine, with silver riband bar Estimate £ 250-300 Award made in Liverpool Town Hall 7.4.1899 the address given presented to Captain J. Athin: 'We, the Mercantile Marine Service Association, desire to convey to you this mark of our high appreciation of your seamanlike services and devotion to duty during the recent casualty to the 'Pavonia', and as a body of practical seamen it gives us the greatest pleasure to place on record this tribute to your qualities as a seaman and navigator during the trying experiences which befell your vessel - a tribute which we feel sure will be heartily endorsed by all nautical bodies and by the public in general. The untoward nature of the accident to your ship, the terrible weather experienced on that occasion, and the prolonged strain and anxiety thrown upon you as the Commander and your Navigating and Engineering Staff, cannot be adequately described in a written record; but under divine Providence you were at last enabled to place your ship in a position of safety without the loss of a single life of your passengers and crew. The breaking adrift of the boilers, with the attendant dangers, rendered your ship helpless and exposed to the fury of those abnormally heavy Atlantic gales from February 3rd to 14th, a period of eleven days, and during this time of physical and mental strain you were ably supported by your Chief Officer (Mr. W.F.D. Taylor) and Navigating Officers, the Chief Engineer (Mr. Thomas Duncan), and staff, together with the whole ship's crew, until the highly-commendable services rendered to you by the Master and crew of the steamer Wolviston enabled your ship to be towed safely to the Azores, which place you reached on February 18th. We heartily congratulate you upon the handsome recognition of the services of yourself, Officers and crew, by the owners of the 'Pavonia', the Cunard Steamship Company.'

Sold for
£240