Auction Catalogue

1 December 2010

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 505

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1 December 2010

Hammer Price:
£150

‘Wreck of the Valkyr’ Medal, 32mm., ornate silver medal with gold centre, this engraved, ‘W.B.M.’ (?), reverse inscribed, ‘With Gratitude from the Master & Crew of the Swedish Schooner Valkyr, 28/4/1919’, hallmarks for Birmingham 1913, good very fine £100-140

‘The Valkyr was a Swedish three-masted schooner built in Sweden in 1901 and registered in Gothenburg. She was originally called the Valkyrien. On Saturday afternoon 26th April 1919, she was on her way from Setubal in Portugal to her home port with a cargo of sardines, cork and salt fish. Off Deal she had taken on a pilot who had taken her into the Thames Estuary, presumably to shelter from the gathering storm. The Valkyr was taken up through the Edinburgh Channel and moored close to the Edinburgh lightship, owing to a strong headwind.

Later, on the 27th, the pilot moved the ship down the Black Deep and moored by the Sunk Light Vessel. By 6pm that Sunday evening a SE gale was blowing. At midnight the wind suddenly veered NE causing the
Valkyr’s two anchor chains to part. The ship was now at the mercy of the gale and the Valkyr struck the Sunk Sand and about an hour later drove over it into deep water, only to find her rudder gone. The vessel drifted all night and crossed several sand banks bumping heavily. On Monday she lost her foremast and afterwards struck the Margate Sands where she was sighted the next morning.

The Margate Lifeboat with Coxswain Stephen Clayson which had already been out that night to rescue 9 crew from the
Dunvegan of Boston, was launched at 8am. After much difficulty, they succeeded in rescuing the Captain, the 7 crew and the pilot who were all landed at Margate Pier. The shipwrecked men were well cared for by the local agent of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society. Captain Wessburg went to the Gazette offices to thank all who had helped and later he arranged for the lifeboatmen to receive medals.

During the night of Monday 28th April, the
Valkyr drove across the Margate Sands and drove ashore dismasted and bow up at Minnis Bay where it was totally wrecked. Its cargo was salvaged, although many locals helped themselves to supplies of coal and tinned sardines. ...’ (Ref. Birchington Heritage Trust Newsletter, September 2004)