Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

China 1842 (R. Poole, Carpenter, H.E.I.C.S. Nemesis.) original suspension, nearly extremely fine £1,000-£1,400

This lot is to be sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Medals, the Property of a Lady.

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Collection

Tim Ash Collection, July 2012.

Approximately 92 medals to the ship.

Robert Poole, Carpenter of the Nemesis, was the only man to hold this appointment throughout the ship's commission from Liverpool in 1840 to Calcutta in 1843. He is one of only eight men, including Mr Hall, the Master, to have served throughout the ship's commission.
Robert Poole would have been one of the most valuable artisans on board the Nemesis. One only has to read the account of the voyage to the near shipwreck and to the Nemesis’ arrival at Delagoa Bay, on the south east coast of Africa to effect repairs to realise that he must have been an extremely capable and extremely hard working, ship's carpenter. He was probably fully employed on a daily basis during his period in the Nemesis. The laudatory comments on the condition of the vessel when it was subsequently inspected at the Bombay Dockyard in 1843 must stand as a complement to him and to the remainder of the Nemesis crew.
Two other ratings are mentioned in the Ledger as holding carpentry appointments. John Williams (Carpenter's Crew) who joined the Nemesis at Point De Galle on 14 October 1840 and was discharged at Macao on 17 April 1841; and John Gill (Carpenter's Mate and Caulker) who joined on 5 August 1841, at Macao and was discharged on 9 November 1842, at Chusan. Both men appear on the Medal Roll but their medals were never claimed.

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 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 commanding officer, 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.

Sold with comprehensive research.