Auction Catalogue

4 December 2002

Starting at 12:00 PM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Lot

№ 424

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4 December 2002

Hammer Price:
£150

China 1900, no clasp (F. J. Curtis, E.R.A. 3 Cl., H.M.S. Rosario), good very fine £80-100

Francis Curtis was born at Blackburn, Lancashire in1876 and entered the Royal Navy in 1896. With the rank of E.R.A. 4th Class in 1897, he became E.R.A.3rd Class in 1899, Acting Chief Engine Room Artificer in 1903, Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class in 1904, Acting Artificer Engineer in 1906, Chief Artificer Engineer in 1917 and retired as Engineer Lieutenant in 1922. Notably, Curtis was serving aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Zulu when, on 8.11.1916, she hit a mine which wrecked her stern. The ship was towed back to port and was there the subject of a case of ‘ship surgery’, whereby the fore-part of the Zulu was joined to the after-part of the Nubian, a sister-ship which had lost its fore-part in a torpedo attack. The finished product was renamed the Zubian. Curtis served on the hybrid destroyer Zubian from 17.5.1917 until the end of the war. On 4.2.1918, the Zubian was credited with the ramming and sinking of the German submarine, UC-50.