THE ALBERT MEDAL.
By Royal Warrant of 12th April, 1867, two decorations were instituted, viz.: the Albert Medal of the first class, and the Albert Medal of the second class, " which " (in the language of the warrant) "we are desirous should be highly prized and eagerly sought after." That of the first class is a gold oval-shaped decoration, enamelled in dark blue, with a monogram V. and A., interlaced with an anchor erect in gold, surrounded with a garter in bronze, inscribed in raised letters of gold : " For gallantry in saving life at sea," and surmounted by a representation of the crown of His Royal Highness, the lamented Prince Consort, and suspended from a dark blue ribbon of an inch and three-eighths in width, with four white longitudinal stripes.
The medal of the second class is similar in all respects in design, but entirely of bronze, the ribbon of which is five-eighths of an inch ire width, with two white longitudinal stripes.
Bars corresponding with the medals are awarded to those already in possession of the medal, for subsequent deeds of heroism, which would have earned for them the medal itself, had they not already received it. The following cases awarded the Albert Medal are selected from a list of heroes which it would be difficult to praise too much. The M armion, of North Shields, drove from her anchors and stranded near Falmouth, England. There was a strong wind blowing, with squalls. The ship, being driven among the breakers, was often entirely covered with the surf, and no communication with the shore seemed possible. The master and one man died from exposure and exhaustion. James Hudson, a youth of seventeen years, volun teering to swim off to the vessel (although it seemed certain death to do so), the coastguard attached lines to him, and-he reached the vessel and got a running gear fixed, by which six of the crew were saved. Hudson, from want of clothing, was obliged to return 'after being a quarter of an hour on board, and his distress was very great, as he had to pull himself hand over hand through the surf. There was still one
man alive on the ship, but he was too weak to fasten on the cork jacket brought him. In this emergency, Theophilus Jones, who had a line, but no jacket or belt on, threw himself into the sea, and after several failures, succeeded in boarding the vessel, fastened the cork jacket on the survivor, and threw him into the sea, and he was safely washed ashore, as well as Jones, who suffered considerably from the cold.
The records of the Albert Medal, like those of the Victoria Cross, are full of such incidents of consummate pluck—for there is hardly another word which can aptly characterize such actions as those already mentioned, and many more —such as Lieutenant Carpenter, of H. M. S. Challenger, who plunged into the kelp-covered sea, at the Falkland Islands,• on a dark and stormy night, in search of a seaman who had fallen overboard, and after much diving brought him up safely ; of Lieutenant de Sansmarez, of the Myrmidon, who in the shark haunted Banana Creek of the Congo, saved another seaman's life ; of Lieutenant Sandilands, who one night sprang from a height of twenty-five feet into the sea after a ship's corporal, who had fallen overboard ; of Lieutenant Forbes, of the Rapid, who jumped over board between Tarragona and Gibraltar, and with the lad he had risked his life to save was picked up by the boat when already sinking under the water; or of Admiral Willoughby, who rescued the man who had dropped into the water in a fit and sunk between .the transport and the pier in Alexandria Harbor.
Many other instances of gallant deeds and noble self-devotion in perils, other than those of battle, might be added ; but these few will serve to illustrate the deeds which win the latest of Britain's orders of merit, the Albert Medal.