ADMELLA medal Awarded to William King
Date1859
Object number00055161
NameMedal
MediumSilver
Dimensions51 mm diameter
ClassificationsCommemorative artefacts
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThe wreck of the modern intercolonial passenger steamer ADEMELLA south west of Mount Gambier, South Australia on 6 August 1859, and the fraught, protracted and only partially successful rescue of its passengers and crew had a dramatic impact in the young southern colonies. The ship had been built less than two years earlier for the Adelaide, Melbourne, Launceston passenger run and named ADMELLA after those ports. Only 24 of the 113 on board were saved. Many perished during the rescue ordeal and their exertions and those of the rescue crews desperately trying to reach them captivated the populace. The wreck's tragic aftermath caught the imagination of artists, poets and community leaders. This medal, awarded to William King of the Portland whaleboat crew was one of 3 gold and 37 silver medals presented to those involved in the rescue in June 1860, with cash gifts, by the Government of Victoria.
HistoryIn the early hours of Saturday 6 August 1859 the well-appointed, modern intercolonial passenger steamer ADMELLA foundered off Cape Northumberland en route from Adelaide to Melbourne carrying 87 passengers and 26 crew. Only 24 of the 113 on board were saved. Most of the 89 drowned were local citizens, many were women and children. Only one woman survived. None of the 14 children survived. Only one body, that of Henry Holbrook, was returned to Adelaide. It was a tragic end to a desperate, gruelling week-long ordeal in which various desperate rescue attempts and the marooned passengers' distress in the wild surf were played out in view of the shore. Survivors clung to the wreck for over a week. Many people took days to die as they glimpsed the land from the sea and watched as one rescue attempt after another failed.
Their daily terrors and the progress of the rescue were telegraphed across the colonies, captivating the populace. Parliament was suspended and business stalled.
The steamship 'Admella' of 500 tons was built in Glasgow less than two years earlier, in 1857 and was considered to be the finest passenger vessel of its day, built for speed, comfort and luxury. The ship made 36 voyages between Adelaide and Melbourne, carrying hundreds of well-heeled colonists.
Taking its name from the first syllables of ADelaide, MELbourne and LAunceston, Admella commenced service between Adelaide and Melbourne in August 1858.
[Nobles quote]" The following account is reproduced from the S.A.N.J. July 1950;
'The Steamship, 'Admella', left Port Adelaide on Friday, August 5, 1859, bound for Melbourne carrying 82 passengers and a crew of 31. Included in the cargo were four racehorses which were to take part in the first Melbourne Cup. The story of the tragic loss of the ship is one of epic heroism mixed with almost unbelievable ill-luck which dogged the rescue attempts. Late on Friday afternoon, due to a heavy swell, a mishap occurred to one of the horses, soon after the 'Admella' had passed Cape Willoughby and the ship was brought around so that the frightened animal could be quietened. The change in course apparently caused some confusion because of the lack of landmark and the subsequent misreading of the compass. Around about 4.30 on Saturday morning the ship ran onto Carpenter's Rocks, a sunken reef between Robe and Port MacDonnell.
The tragic story from then on is of disappointments and failures in the rescue attempts. It is difficult to believe that, although only a mile from the shore and less than 24 hours steaming distance from Port Adelaide, it was a whole week before the survivors were taken off. By a series of mishaps, the ship's lifeboats were all lost and by Sunday morning more than half of those aboard had been washed off the sloping decks or thrown when the forepart of the ship broke up.
Two of the crew managed to get ashore on a make-shift raft on Sunday afternoon and proceeded on foot to Cape Northumberland lighthouse some twenty-odd miles away. The keeper of the lighthouse, Captain Germein, was later to figure prominently in the rescue attempts. With their numbers diminishing daily and without food or water, the 56 who remained aboard on Sunday morning were to spend five more days of prolonged horror witnessing futile attempts to rescue them. It was not until Saturday, August 13, that the half demented remainder, only 22 including the captain and the sole woman survivor, were taken off. Of the fifteen children and thirty four women aboard, only one woman was saved. By an ironic twist of fate, the four racehorses were rescued and one of them actually took part in the Champion Stakes in October. Adam Lindsay Gordon's poem 'From the Wreck' is said to describe his own ride carrying the news of the 'Admella'. Because of this link a bound volume of the official report on the disaster was added to the Dingler Dell collection of Gordon's relics at Mount Gambier in 1989. Stirred by the tragic loss and the heroism of the rescuers, the Victorian Colonists were instrumental in having a medal struck in London for presentation. This was made at a special gathering in the Exhibition Building in Melbourne on June 25, 1860.' [end quote]
A total of 3 gold and 39 silver medals were awarded. This medal was awarded to 'William King. King was a volunteer crewman in the Portland whaleboat that accompanied the lifeboat. For materially assisting in the rescue King was awarded this silver medallion and 12 pounds 10 shillings in cash. Research discloses that this medal/ the medals were struck at the Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint. (Nobles)
AT the ceremony in June 1860 the Gov of Victoria declared 'Other shipwrecks, involving equal or even greater loss of life and property, have occurred both before and since — need I instance among the latter that of the Royal Charter, in which the Australian colonies must ever feel so deep and melancholy an interest ; but, whether from their remoteness from our shores, or from the absence of that protracted suspense in which we were kept as to the fate of those on board the Admella, they have undoubtedly failed to pro-duce the same harrowing excitement, the same heartfelt sympathy, as did that calamity which befell the last-named vessel. It would, indeed, be impossible to conceive a more frightful position than that in which the unfortunates on the shattered hull of that vessel were placed during the week which elapsed before the survivors were rescued. Who can paint their feelings at the first fearful crash, when they found their vessel breaking to pieces on the rocks, and the sea yawning around them like a grave, ready to en-tomb its victims ?' Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Tuesday 26 June 1860, page 6.
The wreck's tragic aftermath caught the imagination of artists, poets and community leaders all consumed with the emotional toil of the passengers and nature's treachery.
Several accounts of the wreck and rescue were published in 1859 including 'Loss of the Admella' the master Captain H McEwen's account, the week following the rescue, and 'Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Admella', funded by public subscription to the Melbourne Admella Relief Fund Committee.
In South Australia artists chose the subject as a fitting theme to explore in works for public exhibition. James Adamson won the two top prizes in the Society for fine arts exhibition in South Australia in 1859 with Admella works, and the following year James Shaw, artist and member of the Society of Arts, organised a Colonial Art Union in June –July 1860, in which a prize of ten guineas would ‘be given for the exhibition of the best painting of the Wreck of the Admella, by a resident artist’. A prize was also offered for the best poem. Submissions may have included poems celebrating the shipwreck written by artists George French Angas and James Shaw, poets Philip Barry, Ellie Debney née Turner and Caroline Carleton, who wrote the anthem ‘Song of Australia’. A few years later the poet Adam Lindsay Gordon also produced a narrative heavily inspired by the shipwreck.
A number of artists produced paintings of the catastrophe, some of which were exhibited in Shaw’s Art Union and in the next Society of Arts exhibition held in April 1861. They included Charles Hill, J.M. Needham and Shaw himself. The events were also published in several engravings and the illustrated press. The works by Shaw and Hill are today in the collection of the AGSA.
SignificanceThe wreck of the modern well-appointed intercolonial passenger steamer ADMELLA in August 1859 en route from Adelaide to Melbourne captivated the colonial imagination. It was South Australia's worst maritime disaster. This medal represents the spectre and the reality of shipwreck in the lives of colonists at that time. It also represents the spirit of volunteering and the role of the rescue services along Australia's coastline historically and today. The medal shows the men launching the lifeboat from shore, the wreckage within their sight and several rescue vessels on the horizon.During a week-long ordeal, the various rescue attempts and horrors of the passengers clinging to the wreck were played out in public, in full view of the shore and in news telegraphed across the southern colonies. Parliament was suspended and business stalled. Several vessels - the Ladybird, the Corio, the Ant, the Portland lifeboat and the Portland whaleboat were involved in the rescue.
Admella was built in Glasgow less than two years earlier and named after the three southern colonial ports it frequented: Adelaide, Melbourne and Launceston.
Only 24 of the 113 on board were saved. Many of the drowned were local citizens, many were women and children. Only one woman and no children survived. It was a tragic end to a desperate, gruelling week-long ordeal.
The wreck's tragic aftermath caught the imagination of artists, poets and community leaders all consumed with the emotional toil of the passengers and nature's treachery. The wreck was the subject of narrative accounts, paintings and poems by leading artists and writer including James Shaw, Charles Hill, George French Angus and Adam Lindsay Gordon.
This medal was one of 3 gold and 37 silver medals awarded by the Government of Victoria to those involved in the rescue in June 1860, among them WIlliam King of the Portland whaleboat crew.
The govenor spoke at the function 'Other shipwrecks, involving equal or even greater loss of life and property, have occurred both before and since — need I instance among the latter that of the Royal Charter, in which the Australian colonies must ever feel so deep and melancholy an interest ; but, whether from their remoteness from our shores, or from the absence of that protracted suspense in which we were kept as to the fate of those on board the Admella, they have undoubtedly failed to produce the same harrowing excitement, the same heartfelt sympathy, as did that calamity which befell the last-named vessel. It would, indeed, be impossible to conceive a more frightful position than that in which the unfortunates on the shattered hull of that vessel were placed during the week which elapsed before the survivors were rescued. Who can paint their feelings at the first fearful crash, when they found their vessel breaking to pieces on the rocks, and the sea yawning around them like a grave, ready to entomb its victims?' Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Tuesday 26 June 1860, page 6
He continued
' In our own time almost everybody trusts himself more or less to the stormy deep. We have, doubtless, all done so, and can, therefore, form some faint idea of what the horrors of shipwreck must be. The appalling spectacle comes home to our own breasts. The fate of the Admella's passengers yesterday, tomorrow may be ours. In the year 1859, I see by the return from the Board of Trade, that, by the wreck of British ships alone, upwards of 1,600 lives and nearly £2,000,000 worth of property were sacrificed. It was natural, under all the circumstances to which I have alluded, that the news of the Admella's wreck should create the liveliest excitement throughout this and the neighbouring colonyshould evoke the most strenuous efforts of the citizens to render aid — should call forth universal sympathy for those who survived ; and this sympathy, I rejoice to think, has not been confined to words, not to the mere excited protestations and frantic offers of the moment, but has led to the collection, as well in Adelaide as in this city, in Portland, and in most of the other towns of Victoria, of a very large amount of money; in this colony, alone, I believe, between £4,000 and £5,000, and, in all, nearly £8,000.'
The Argust report lists the recipients ' (34.) William King (absent), one of the crew of the Portland whaleboat which accompanied the life-boat, and materially assisted in the rescue. Award—A silver medal, and £12 10s.'
