Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Arctic Medal 1875-76 (V. Domines. Cook. 1. Cl. H.M.S. Alert.) light marks, otherwise good very fine and scarce £5,000-£7,000

62 Arctic 1875-76 medals issued to the officers and crew of Alert.

Vincent Domines was born in Gibraltar on 8 August 1841. His Service Certificate from 1 January 1873, shows that he was in Teazer then as a Ship's Cook but also that he already had a Good Conduct Badge so must have joined the Navy some years earlier - he was already 31 years old. He had been a boiler-maker before joining the Navy and 5'4" tall with black hair, grey eyes and a dark complexion. He had no wounds marks or scars.

To trace his earlier career, Teazer's Description Book was enormously helpful. This showed (Ship's Book No 16) that he had joined the ship on 23 November 1869, that he was a Roman Catholic, had been vaccinated and was single. More importantly it listed all his previous ships. He joined the Navy on 12 September 1861, as Gunroom Steward in Recruit. This occurred as this ship was returning from Malta to U.K. having left the former in late August and was in Woolwich by 11 October.

He was paid off there on 11 October but continued his service by joining Devastation on 15 December 1861, as the Engineer's Servant, remaining in this post for just over a year until 19 January 1863. He then went to Topaze as Ship's Cook from 20 January 1863 to 23 June 1863, followed by Sutlej from 24 June 1863 to 6 December 1866.

During the next two years he had short stints in the following - Malacca, Zealous, Chanticleer, Malacca (again), Topaze (again) and Mutine, before joining Thistle on 14 March 1869, for 8 months before finally ending up in Teazer for the following 4 years and 9 months - longer than any previous ship.

He was discharged from Teazer on 26 August 1874 and, after a few months in Naval Barracks and Duke of Wellington, he joined Alert on 17 April 1875 for 20 months service in the Arctic.

When he joined the Navy his forename was recorded as "Vicente St", and in some early documents this is reversed to "St Vicente". This seems to have proved difficult for ships' clerks (and doubtless his messmates) so he became "Vincent".

From 1863 until 1875 he was described as a Ship's Cook and a listing of ratings in 1869 shows that this was ranked as a Chief Petty Officer. The day before he joined Alert he was re-rated as Cook 1st Class and at the same time took a 10 year Continuous Service engagement (o/n. 73026). The following day he joined Alert and on 1 May 1875, received his 2nd Good Conduct Badge, but was deprived of this on 16 September 1875 (no reason given, but it cannot have been too serious as his character at the end of the year was still ‘Very Good’). This badge was restored on 15 December 1876, 10 days after he was paid off from Alert. He seems to have been the only cook on board so did not, therefore, go on any of the sledging trips.

He received a 3rd Good Conduct Badge on 15 December 1878, when he was in Penelope, but was deprived of two GCBs on 20 December 1880, when he was in Inconstant. The reason is again not given but it appears that he was reduced to Cook's Mate 1st Class on 5 February 1881, at which point he seems to have lost all his badges as "Not entitled to badges as Cook's Mate". On 1 July 1881, when in Flora, however, he was re-advanced to Cook 1st Class and had two badges restored "on regaining his former rating".

He received a 3rd GCB on 1 January 1882, and finally left the Navy with a pension on 16 April 1885, at the age of nearly 44. There is no mention, though, of "tracing" him for a Long Service & Good Conduct Medal - which is not entirely surprising.

He died on 23 February 1908 at home in Washbrook in Suffolk from "stomatitis and septicaemia" aged 66 and was described as a Petty Officer Royal Navy (Pensioner).

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