What is the value of saving a life? That is a question that is impossible to answer. However, there are pieces, a token, to symbolize just that action. A commemorative of appreciation awarded to someone for an action taken to preserve something priceless. That is what a life-saving medal is. It is this recognition of being a Good Samaritan and doing something above and beyond. There are many such medals, but few are awarded by the government. Recently an example of a life-saving medal issued by the United States State Department was certified by PCGS.
This life saving medal was issued for saving the crew of Jennie F. Willey, a three-masted schooner, a ship of about 400 tons. On October 1, 1898, the ship left Jacksonville, Florida, after delivering its cargo of coal and reloading a cargo of lumber for delivery of Martinique. The crew of nine men made up of Americans and Scandinavians soon meet heavy seas and high winds from a hurricane. The ship soon capsized, and, with good fortune, the crew were able to get onto the remaining bit of deck and survive.
It was after the storm when the men realized their plight, being wrecked on open ocean, no rations of food or water surviving. With no prospects of a quick recuse, the men were able to catch a shark with a makeshift cotton hook, which would keep them fed and alive for the next several days. From rain, they were able to drink. But they were unable to collect the water, and dehydration continued to be a constant issue. One of the crew saw the captain’s bicycle underwater, which had washed out of the cabin. It had been saved from drifting away by being tangled in ropes, and this bicycle would be a salvation to the crew. The tires were used to collect water from rain and the spokes from the tires were used to make hooks with which fish were caught and devoured raw. It was October 22, some 21 days after the wreck, that the last fish was caught and rations ran out.
On October 26, now 25 days after the wreck, that men on the Sen Clipper, a British schooner, saw the wreck. By then most the crew from the ill-fated Jennie F. Willey were too weak to even sit up. Adolphus and Michael Smith, brothers from England, rescued the crew. They were taken to Nassau, Bahamas, and eventually back to New York.
As an appreciation of saving the lives of nine men, the Smith Brothers each received a First-Class Life Saving medal from the U.S. State Department. It is this medal that symbolizes and recounts the event. It would be the story of being saved by a bicycle that caused the details of the events to be published in a bicycle journal and why it is still documented today. The whereabouts of Michael’s medal are unknown, but the medal awarded to Adolphus first came to sale in 1979, when it was bought by famous collector John J. Ford. It was later sold from his collection in 2004. PCGS certified the piece recently and is preserved in a custom gasket. At PCGS, every item is special, and this medal definitely fits the description of something that is special.