In 1858 the Maitland Mercury reported on a gold medal awarded to a captain who saved 105 souls from a shipwreck.
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On Wednesday, that medal sold at auction for £3360 or $6025.86 in London.
It was awarded to Captain Morrison who discovered the shipwrecked Timandra off Cape Keppel on October 23, 1858. The captain rescued 105 people from peril when their ship hit Keppel Bay sand spit.
Christopher Proudlove, a consultant publicist for Morton and Eden, specialist auctioneers of coins and medals, discovered the report when the medal came up for sale.
Earlier this week he alerted the Mercury to the original report he found online in the December 16, 1858 edition. The report noted the wreck and the number of people on board and that the “ship was in imminent danger, both from the accident that had occurred to her and from the risk attendant on any attempt to relieve her.”
Mr Proudlove said he couldn’t say whether Morrison or the Timandra had any link to Maitland but the Mercury added a fascinating element to the story.
