Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Egypt and Sudan 1882-89 Medal awarded to Boatman J. Jacobs, Caughnawaga Detachment

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, 1 clasp, The Nile 1884-85 (12 Boat. J. Jacob, Caughnawaga Det.), unit officially corrected, extremely fine £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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John Jacob’s Medal and clasp are confirmed on the original roll, one of just 56 such awards granted to men of the Caughnawaga Detachment. The same source gives his age as 38 years.

In planning his attempt to relieve “Chinese” Gordon at Khartoum, the British C.-in-C., Sir Garnet Wolseley, quickly realised that he would require the assistance of skilled boatmen to help transport his men and supplies on the Nile, and recalling his earlier contact with the multi-talented Canadian “voyageurs” who had been employed in the Red River operations of 1870, he cabled a request for volunteers.

In response, around 400 rugged loggers and “shantymen” were quickly recruited and embarked at Montreal aboard the Ocean King. A little over three weeks later, in early October 1884, they arrived at Alexandria, and made the first stage of their journey up the Nile to “Bloody Halfway” point as passengers in a fleet of small tourist steamers. Thereafter, their work began in earnest, namely the embarkation of soldiers and supplies into around 400 British-made whalers for the journey through the cataracts of the 900 miles to Khartoum. As the expedition moved further into the Sudan, the shallow river became increasingly dangerous because of submerged rocks, resulting in the drowning of at least five “voyageurs”: one of them - Louis Capitane, a Caughnawaga Indian - like so many of his comrades, had never learned to swim.

News of Gordon’s demise prompted the order for the “voyageurs” to commence their descent of the Nile, and with the current now running in the same direction, their journey was accomplished in a matter of weeks, often, in fact, at perilous speed. The whole were then paraded at the base of the pyramids at Cairo prior to being embarked for Halifax, where they arrived in February 1885.