page_title: Ellen Southard
section_title: Lifesaving medals
hierarchical_section_title: Ellen Southard / Lifesaving medals
caption_attribution_description: English: Lucius Fairchild: US Army brigadier general, Governor of Wisconsin, and U.S. Minister to Spain
context_page_description: Ellen Southard was an American full-rigged merchant ship from Bath, Maine that was built in 1863 by prominent shipbuilder T.J. Southard. She plied international trade routes for twelve years, calling at ports as far away as Sydney.
  On 27 September 1875, the ship wrecked in the mouth of the Mersey River at Liverpool during a hurricane-strength storm. Shore-based lifeboats crewed mainly by volunteers set out from several lifeboat stations to the aid of the distressed ship after it foundered on a sandbank. One of the lifeboats capsized in heavy seas after picking up the ship's crew, resulting in nine people from the ship as well as three rescuers losing their lives.
  Following the advice of the US consul at Liverpool, the United States Congress recognised the acts of bravery by issuing 27 Gold Lifesaving Medals to the lifeboat men who attempted to save her crew, after a two-year delay during which US law first had to be changed to allow the newly instituted medals to be awarded to non-US citizens. Debate about lifeboat designs continued for many years until a self-righting design was eventually adopted.
context_section_description: General Lucius Fairchild, the United States consul at Liverpool, wrote to his government recommending that the gallantry of the Englishmen who were involved in the rescue effort be recognised. The Secretary of State supported his recommendation and the United States Congress moved to award the newly instituted Lifesaving Medal to the lifeboat men. However, a delay of 17 months followed during which a change in legislation had to be enacted to allow the medals to be issued to non-US nationals. Finally, in 1877, the United States government awarded first-class Gold Lifesaving Medals to the twenty-seven men of the Mersey Docks and New Brighton RNLI lifeboat station who survived the incident, while the families of the three deceased lifeboat men were awarded a sum of $200.00 in gold in lieu of a medal. The medals were conferred in a public ceremony in Liverpool Town Hall on 27 February 1877.
  The citation accompanying the New Brighton medals read as follows:
  Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a life-saving medal of the first class which has been awarded to you, under the authority of the provisions of the seventh section of the Act of the Congress of the United States, approved June 20, 1874, for the extreme and heroic daring manifested by you in the rescue, under circumstances of peculiar danger and difficulty, of eight persons from the wreck of the American ship "Ellen Southard," at the mouth of the river Mersey, near Liverpool.
  
  In transmitting this offering to you, as to each member of the crew of the Life-Boat of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution stationed at New Brighton, it is proper to remark that it is the first time an opportunity has arisen for bestowing the medal of the life-saving service of this country upon subjects of a foreign nation. It was the fortune of your crew to arrive upon the scene of disaster after the Liverpool life-boat men had effected a deliverance, and been in turn subjected to a dreadful casualty, whereby nine of the persons they had rescued and three of their own number were drowned: and the remaining eight persons from the vessel and the twelve men of the Liverpool crew, clinging to the capsized boat in a fearful sea, owe their lives to you and your comrades. The extreme jeopardy and hardships you encountered upon the occasion of their rescue are deeply appreciated, and, in behalf of the United States, I beg you to accept this testimonial, provided by law in recognition of such deeds of bravery and compassion. In sending it, allow me to add the expression of the sense of the gallantry and the devotion to high human duty which marked the conduct of yourself and of your comrades upon the occasion under notice, and of the assurance that each member of your crew, in his own person, by this deed of valor and mercy, confers fresh and just honor upon the great name of England.
  
  I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
  
  Charles F. CONANT, Acting Secretary of the Treasury
caption: General Lucius Fairchild, who wrote the citation that led to Lifesaving Medals being awarded
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "620", "Image ImageLength": "830", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:02:27 00:54:25", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "486", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4307", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "620", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "830"}