Orders, Decorations and Medals

Life Saving Medal, circular, engraved medal, obv. inscribed, ‘Presented to Henry J. Letley, For Saving Life at Sea, 4th Jany. 1873’; rev. plain, 35mm., silver, unmounted, good very fine £40-60

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Boddington Collection of Life Saving Medals.

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The ship Peru of Liverpool, left Cardiff with coals for Rio de Janeiro on 4 December 1872 but because of foul weather warnings put into Portland, only leaving there on 29 December. The voyage, which had got off to a bad start, then got worse. When in the Bay of Biscay she was caught in a gale and began to founder; the crew were compelled to pump incessantly for six days to remain afloat; eight of her crew being lost overboard during this time. On 2 January 1873 the schooner Astrea bore down and stood by the Peru all night. The next day the Astrea launched two boats in an attempt to take off the crew but only one was able to reach the vessel. Henry J. Letley was a seaman on this boat, which was able to take eight of the exhausted crew members off and return with them to the Astrea, which was obliged to square away for her own safety. The next day the schooner Invictor, at great peril to herself, took the remaining 13 men off the Peru. The survivors described the rescues as very brave, and added that they were reduced to the last extremity when taken off. (Information derived from a report in The Times of 8 February 1873).