1794 .]

HONORARY MEDALS.

17

Measures were immediately taken for striking the new Naval Medal, andthe design is remarkably chaste, classical, and appropriate. They are of twosizes, the larger being given only to Flag Officers, Captains of the Fleet, andCommodores, and the smaller to Post Captains, only one Officer below thatrank having ever received it. The large Medal, which is 2§- inches in diameter,contains on the obverse, a figure of Victory, standing on the prow of an antiquegalley (as seen in several ancient Medals), placing a wreath of laurel on Bri-tannia, who wears a helmet, and stands on the galley, having at her side around shield charged with the crosses of the Union Banner, her right footresting on a helmet, and holding a spear in her left hand. The reverse of thelarge Medal bears a wreath, composed of oak and laurel, within which areinscribed the name and rank of the officer, the event for which the Medal wasconferred, and the date. The Admirals, engaged in the Battle of the 1st ofJune 1794, wore their Medals attached to the gold Chains which had beenpresented to them by the King; but all the Flag Officers, who subsequentlyreceived Medals, wore them to a white Ribband, with dark blue edges, fromthe neck. The smaller, or Captain’s Medal, is If inch in diameter, and con-tains the same obverse as the larger one; but, on the reverse, the wreath of oakand laurel are omitted. It is always worn to a Ribband, of the same coloursas that of the Admiral’s, with a gold buckle and swivel, * * * 8 between the third andfourth button-holes of their Uniform coats.

Earl Howe’s Medal 9 was inscribed, richard earl howe, admiral andCOMMANDER-IN-CHIEF ON THE 1 OF JUNE 1794. THE FRENCH FLEET DEFEATED;and a similar inscription, mutatis mutandis, was engraved on the Medals of theother Admirals, Captain of the Fleet, and Captains.

In November 1796, the Medals were distributed to all the Admirals,who had received gold Chains from the King, and to the fourteen Captains,mentioned in Earl Howe’s Letter of the 21st of June 1794, 1 as having distin-

Chains: the Captains are to have, it is said, gold Medals; and Admiral Gardner is created Major-

General of Marines. We all dined with the King yesterday.” Naval Chronicle, Vol. XXV. The

Chains were formed of large oval single links.

8 See the accompanying Engravings.

9 A duplicate of this Medal, and of those given to the Captains for Earl Howe’s Victory, was pre-sented to the British Museum by Earl Spencer, the First Lord of the Admiralty, in 1796.

1 One Rear-Admiral and eight Captains of Line of Battle Ships, who were in the Action (exclusiveof the three who were killed or died of wounds soon after, and of Captain Collingwood, on whom it wassubsequently conferred), did not receive the Medal, though Lord Howe expressly stated, that the