Orders, Decorations and Medals

Eastbourne Life Boat Medal 1883, silver (Edwin Matthews, 2nd Cox. Presented by G. A. Wallis, Esq. C.E., First Mayor of Eastbourne on behalf of the subscribers, in recognition of the gallant rescue of the crew of the Norwegian Barque “New Brunswick” off Beachy Head, Nov. 25th 1883, by the Eastbourne Lifeboat) details all engraved on the edge, obverse and reverse, very fine and very rare £200-300

The outstanding Eastbourne Lifeboat rescue of November 1883, was the most spectacular launch in the history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. They actually hauled the lifeboat on wheels for five miles over Beachy Head to Birling Gap in appalling conditions and rescued the crew of eleven from a wreck off the Belle Tout Lighthouse. It was a test of physical endurance, lasting nine hours, that can never be repeated in these days of motorised lifeboats.

For days the crew of the barque New Brunswick, en route from Quebec to Sutherland, had been battling against a gale. On the morning of 25th November 1883, her master, Captain Tobeassin, decided that with her sails torn to shreds and her mast-spars gone, he would put out his best two anchors to avoid being driven onto the rocks off Belle Tout Lighthouse. The keepers saw the ship flying the distress signal upside down and so did the Caostguard at Birling Gap who alerted the Eastbourne Lifeboat.

It was decided that the lifeboat William and Mary could never be rowed around Beachy Head in that gale, and that the Newhaven lifeboat, with the gale in its favour would get there first. However, a telegraph from Newhaven said that they could not get out of the harbour without their usual tug, and the tug was out of steam. Accordingly, it was decided to place the Eastbourne lifeboat on a wheeled carriage so that it could be dragged to Beachy Head. About 200 men with drag ropes started along the road and were soon joined by a team of ten horses and, shortly afterwards, by another three horses. With the horses and men, pushing and pulling, the lifeboat completed the stiff haul up Beachy Head Road to the Gap, a feat that had taken several hours in pouring rain. The Gap, however, was not only too narrow for the lifeboat carriage, it was too narrow for the lifeboat itself and, worse still, due to erosion there was a 10 foot drop to the beach.

By now several more gentlemen and farmhands had joined the party and, together, everyone busied themselves in digging away to widen the gap. Nearby was a big stack of timber baulks with which a ramp was formed down to the beach. It was now about 12.30 p.m. and the crew of the wreck were desperately clinging to the rigging about a mile out with tremendous waves breaking over them as the anchors held.

With great difficulty the lifeboat was taken down to the beach and men with lifelines waded up to their wastes in water to get it into the sea. At 1.15 p.m. the lifeboat was away, her Coxswain Charles ‘Bones’ Hide, with Edwin ‘Lord’ Matthews as Second Coxswain, and the crew of fourteen. The midship oars were double-banked, two men to an oar for extra power, and they headed out into a tremendous sea rolling in from the SSW, and were soon lost to sight in rain and spray. It took an hour to reach the New Brunswick a mile away, and Hide decided to anchor astern of her as near as he could, and to throw a line. The second throw was successful and the line was made fast. One by one the exhausted seamen hauled themselves to the lifeboat and were pulled aboard, one with crushed ribs, and the last to leave was Captain Tobeassin with his Norwegian ship’s flag between his teeth.

At about 2.15 p.m. Hide began the return journey with the heavily laden boat and, in a great feat of seamanship, landed at almost the launching point. The rescued men were taken to the Coastguard station, whilst the gallant lifeboat crew were faced with the no less daunting task of getting the William and Mary back to Eastbourne. At 5.30 p.m., having been well fed, they began the five-mile journey home in the November gloom and arrived without incident and by 7.30 p.m. the lifeboat was back in its house.

Within days the launch had been widely reported in the headlines of the national press and the sixteen lifeboatmen were feted and praised as heroes for weeks in East Sussex. A fund was quickly got up to reward the crew, and by mid-December it had reached £70. The fund committee decided that the sixteen man crew should each be given four pounds and the balance of just over eight pounds should be spent on a silver medal for each man. These were duly presented to the crew in January 1884 at a formal presentation lunch.

On the day following the rescue, the Newhaven lifeboat had put out of harbour with its tug and had towed the New Brunswick to harbour for repairs. This did not escape the notice of Coxswain Hide of the Eastbourne lifeboat but when he learned, in February 1885, that the crew of the Newhaven lifeboat, in collusion with the tug owners, had been paid substantial salvage money, he was incensed and immediately claimed £120 life salvage from the Norwegians. However, the central committee of the R.N.L.I. advised that if a lifeboat crew while saving life, could also save property, salvage could be claimed for the property, but under no circumstances could a crew claim money for saving life. If they did so, summary dismissal would be automatic.

Despite these warnings, Hide pursued his claim and in April he got the £120, which he shared with his crew. In June, after much acrimony, the R.N.L.I. dismissed Hide and his entire crew, and for three bitter years the lifeboat remained locked up, until a new Coxswain was appointed in 1887. Sold with a good amount of additional research.