The '1911 Coronation' C.B. group of six awarded to Engineer Rear-Admiral J. S. Sanders,...

The ‘1911 Coronation’ C.B. group of six awarded to Engineer Rear-Admiral J. S. Sanders, Royal Navy, who was present in H.M.S. Shah’s engagement with the Peruvian rebel turret ship Huascar in May 1877, in addition to service as a bluejacket in the Benin River operations in the summer of 1894
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels; Coronation 1911; South Africa 1877-79, no clasp (J. S. Sanders. Engr. R.N. H.M.S. “Shah”); Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, no clasp (J. S. Sanders, Engr. R.N. H.M.S. Euryalus.); East and West Africa 1887-1900, 1 clasp, Benin River 1894 (J. S. Sanders, Stf. Engr., R.N., H.M.S. Phoebe.); Khedive’s Star, dated 1884, mounted for wear, light contact marks, otherwise good very fine (6) £3,000-£4,000
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Importation Duty
This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK
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Provenance: Alan Hall Collection, June 2000.

C.B. London Gazette 19 June 1911.

John Stocker Sanders was born in Plympton, Devon, on 9 October 1852, and entered the Royal Navy as an Assistant Engineer 2nd Class in September 1873. His first seagoing appointment was in H.M.S. Black Prince, flagship of Rear-Admiral Lord John Hay, C.B., Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron. Having then been promoted to Assistant Engineer 1st Class, he joined the frigate Shah, flagship of Rear-Admiral Algernon de Horsey, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station. And it was during this appointment that he was present in Shah’s engagement with the rebel Peruvian turret ship Huascar in May 1877.

In the course of a not uncommon revolutionary movement in a Spanish American republic, the insurgent candidate for the presidency of Peru, Nicholas de Pierola, sought to gain power by means of naval arms. His supporters and some officers and men from the Peruvian training ship Maranon persuaded the officers of the Peruvian turret ship Huascar to rebel against the central government. This British built armoured turret ship, armed with two 9-inch 300-pounder rifled Armstrong guns, was seized without resistance in Callao harbour on 6 May 1877 and then sailed south to commence her unlawful adventures with Pierola’s son aboard.

Rear-Admiral Algernon de Horsey, who arrived at Callao in his flagship Shah shortly afterwards, later heard that the rebels aboard the Huascar had committed acts of aggression against ships of the British-owned Pacific Steam Navigation Company. He immediately lodged a formal complaint to the authorities in Lima but the Peruvian government refused to take responsibility for the rebel ship. De Horsey therefore took up the baton himself, informing the president of Peru that he would hunt down the Huascar.

The Shah sailed south from Callao on the evening of 18 May and met-up with her consort, the corvette Amethyst, at Iquique on 23 May. For two or three days they cruised separately without avail but on 28 May the Admiral heard from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s steamer John Elder that the Huascar had been sighted ten miles south of the town of Pisaqua, which place she had recently bombarded.
Just after noon on 29 May, with both ships sailing within signal distance, a vessel was sighted by the Amethyst off the port of Ylo. An hour later at 1.15 p.m. it was identified as the Huascar flying the Peruvian flag, with decks noticeably cleared for action.

She was ‘brought to’ by the faster British flagship after trying to escape and a full-blown gunnery action commenced at 3 .06 p.m. and continued until 5.45 p.m., an engagement that sometimes closed to ranges as short as a few hundred yards. During the action a Whitehead torpedo was for the first time fired in anger by Shah but the Huascar managed to avoid it and steamed towards port at 11 knots, this being two knots faster than the torpedo chasing her! The inaccuracy of the gunners aboard Huascar led to no hits being scored on the unarmoured hulls of Shah and Amethyst, and although the Huascar was hit some 80 to 90 times, the power of the British projectiles proved to be ineffective against her belts of amour plate; one direct hit from Shah’s 7-inch gun pierced her armour only to a depth of three inches.

During the night Huascar made good her escape and on the following day Amethyst was despatched to find her. Admiral de Horsey and Captain Bedford then devised a plan that once Huascar was found they would sink her by Whitehead or Spar torpedoes carried by the ship’s whaler. Amethyst signalled to the flagship on 31 May that she had found the Huascar lying at anchor in Iquique, in company with other warships. Aboard Shah all was made ready for the torpedo expedition, the whaler in command of Lieutenant Charles Lindsay, R.N., would carry the torpedo and be supported by the ship’s cutter and pinnace.

The boats’ crews, numbering in total eight officers and 30 hand-picked ratings, were all well-armed with rifles, revolvers and cutlasses and were dropped off after dusk just outside the surf running across the harbour at Iquique. They were to make their own way to the target. Some little while later Amethyst hove into sight and signalled to Shah that the Huascar had surrendered earlier in the day to the Peruvian fleet. The recall signal was immediately made to Shah’s boats which by this time were only about one mile from their target.

In the following year, the Shah returned to England and was recommissioned for service on the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa stations. Sanders, who had been promoted to Engineer in March 1879, remained with her and saw active service off South Africa in the Zulu War. So, too, in his next appointment, the corvette Euryalus, the flagship to Admiral Sir William N. W. Hewett, V.C., K.C.B., K.C.S.I., Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Squadron, in which he served in the military operations off the Sudan and was promoted to Acting Chief Engineer in June 1884.

In October 1891, after serving on the staff of the Navy’s engineering school and being advanced to Staff Engineer, Sanders joined the Phoebe, in which, in August 1894, he was landed for service in the Naval Brigade under the command of Rear-Admiral Frederick Bedford, C.B., Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa stations. He and his fellow bluejackets were charged with subduing Chief Nanna of Brohemie, who had terrorised a large area of the surrounding countryside and had recently fired on the launch of Alecto whilst on her lawful business. Following a heavy bombardment of the Chief’s stronghold, the Naval Brigade, comprising 180 officers and men, was landed and, after destroying and burning a stockade, returned to their ships. Later still, on 19 September 1894, the town of Brohemie was shelled and on the following day the Naval Brigade was again landed and stormed the town which was quickly taken. Chief Nanna had however fled, but his guns, gun powder, and other war stores were destroyed.

On returning to England, Sanders was promoted to Fleet Engineer in April 1896, and, following four years at Gibraltar’s dockyard, he was appointed an Inspector of Machinery in April 1902; the title of his new rank was subsequently amended to Engineer Captain. Having then enjoyed a brace of appointments in capital ships in the Atlantic Fleet, followed by a stint as Chief Engineer of Gibraltar Dockyard, he was promoted to Engineer Rear-Admiral in March 1909.

Awarded the C.B. on the occasion of the King’s Coronation in 1911, Sanders was placed on the Retired List in October 1912. He was not recalled in the Great War and died in April 1936, aged 84.