Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Sea Gallantry Medal (Foreign Services) awarded to Seaman Hermann Fehlau, of the German steamer Koln of Bremen, for the rescue of the crew of the Margaret Mitchell of Glasgow

Sea Gallantry Medal (Foreign Services), E.VII.R., silver, ‘From the British Government’, ‘For Gallantry and Humanity’ (Hermann Fehlau, 23rd November 1902), very fine and scarce £400-500

A scarce medal, there being only 222 Edward VII medals (of all types) awarded, of which 181 are known to be in silver with the type 5 reverse (Scarlett, 2010, p. 50).

The Liverpool barque Margaret Mitchell was on a voyage from Cardiff to Maranhem. While in Cardiff dock the ship was leaking. Leaving port on 17 November 1902, by the 19 November 17 inches of water was found in the hold and as the weather worsened this increased to 11 feet by the 21st and the ship was abandoned. Two days later, on 23 November, the Köln, of Bremen, arrived at the scene. Her Second Officer, Max Wittekopf, and eight men, including Hermann Fehlau, launched a boat from the ship in a heavy sea and at great risk and danger, and managed to rescue the crew. The Köln then steamed for a further three hours in search for two more members of the crew who had drifted away from the main group and eventually rescued them also. The subsequent Court of Inquiry found that the Margaret Mitchell had not been ‘in a fit and proper condition … to encounter the ordinary perils of the sea’. The Board of Trade awarded a piece of plate to the master of the Köln, together with one gold and eight silver medals and £3 each to the rescuers (see R. J. Scarlett The Sea Gallantry Medal, 2010, pp. 293-294; Manchester Courier, 7 February 1903, p. 15; London Daily News, 24 March 1903, p. 12).