Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

China 1842 (F. W. Whitehurst, 3rd Offr., H.E.I.C.S. Nemesis), old but replacement straight-bar suspension, edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise about very fine and rare £800-1000

Just 93 such Medals were awarded to the crew of the Nemesis.

The steamer Nemesis witnessed extensive action during the course of the First China War, not least at the capture of the city of Chapoo on 16 June 1842, when, as stated in the The Illustrated London News, ‘Our casualties were numerous, two men being killed and twenty-five being wounded, but confined entirely to the naval arm of the expedition. The enemy are said to have lost about eighty killed and a proportionate number wounded. They served their guns extremely well, and some of the vessels (particularly Her Majesty’s Ship Blonde and the steamers Nemesis and Sesostris) suffered a great deal from the heavy destructive fire. The Nemesis’ rigging was cut to pieces ...’

The Nemesis had earlier participated in the historic forcing of the inner passage from Macao to Whompoa, in company with boats from the Samarang and Atalanta, an account of which was afterwards published by her C.O., Captain W. H. Hall, R.N., in his Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the “Nemesis” from 1840 to 1843; see, too, Low’s History of the Indian Navy 1613-1863, for frequent mention of the Nemesis in action. Another China 1842 Medal is known to the recipient but named in the rank of 4th Officer.