Jersey issued in 2006 a Miniature Sheet of £2, which depict the Victoria Cross, and in the margin of the sheet the HMS ARROGANTE and HECLA and two recipients of the Victoria Cross, George Henry Ingouville and Charles Davis Lucas.
Jersey Post gives:
To commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Victoria Cross, Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross by Royal Warrant on the 29th January 1856 to be “awarded to those officers or men that have served Us in the presence of the enemy, and shall have performed some signal act of valour or devotion to their country.” The Victoria Cross is in fact the highest decoration that a member of the British of Commonwealth Armed Forces can receive and the most recent award was made by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Private Johnson Gideon Beharry at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 27th April 2005. His citation makes emotional reading as it covers two separate occasions upon which he acted with the selfless courage which is a trademark characteristic of all Victoria Cross recipients.
Queen Victoria made the Victoria Cross retrospective so that those servicemen whose auctions had fitted the award criteria during the Crimean War could be recognized. It is known that Queen Victoria choose the wording which appears on the Cross – ‘For Valour’- and there are suggestions that Prince Albert was very much involved in its design.
Whilst sufficient metal remains, each Victoria Cross is made from the melted down bronze metal from guns which were captured at Sebastopol during the Crimean War and is hand finished making each unique in some way.
There have been a number of Jersey recipients of the Victoria Cross including Captain of the Mast, George Henry Ingouville (1826-1869) who was present at the first Victoria Cross investiture in Hyde Park, London. This took place on 26th June 1857; Queen Victoria presented sixtytwo awards in total and Ingouvelle was the twelfth man to receive this prestigious honour. Ingouville was born in St Helier and at the age of twenty-one, joined the Merchant Service before transferring to the Royal Navy some four years later.
On 13th July 1855, whilst serving on board HMS ARROGANT near the fort of Voborg in the Gulf of Finland during the Crimean War, Ingouville was injured when an explosion ripped trough the magazine of ARROGANT’s second cutter. This led to the cutter being swamped and it dangerously drifted through heavy fire towards the enemy battery. Although wounded, Ingouville jumped overboard and swam around to the bow and somehow managed to turn her about and away from the enemy. Upon seeing Ingouvlle’s precarious situation Lieutenant G.D.Dowel of the Royal Marine Artillery called for volunteers to help. Dowell and three volunteers came up alongside and rescued the crew from the cutter and the gallant Ingouville from the water before towing the damaged boat to safety. For his part in the episode, Lieutenant Dowell also received the Victoria Cross.
Also at the first investiture was Mate Charles Davis Lucas R.N. who was the recipient of the very first award. His citation dates his act of valour to 21st June 1854 on board HMS HECLA also during this Crimean War. The twenty year old Lucas was on the HECLA’s deck during the Battle of Bomarsund on Åland, a then Finnish island which lay midway between Finland and Sweden in the midst of the battle a live shell landed on the deck of the HECLA, Although the order was given for all hands to lie flat on the deck, Charles Davis Lucas wasted no time in picking the shell up and throwing it overboard before it exploded. His incredible courage undoubtedly saved many lives that day and he fully deserved the honour of being the first recipient of the Victoria Cross.
Both HMS ARROGANT and HMS HECLA and their crews saw a lot of action in the Crimean War and the National Maritime Museum possess a print showing the two ships together during the campaign which stamp artiest Andrew Robinson was able to use as reference when painting the ships on the Miniature Sheet background The Imperial War Museum also gave Jersey Post permission to use the image of Charles Lucas (IWM. Q80552) as reference from which to paint.
The ARROGANTE was built as a first class wooden frigate.
Built by Portsmouth Dockyard for the Royal Navy.
11 February 1845 ordered, and named 04 March 1845.
September 1845 keel laid down.
05 April 1848 launched under the name ARROGANTE.
Tonnage 1.872 ton (bm), displacement 2.690 tons. Dim. 200.0 x 45.8 x 15ft., length on gundeck 172.9ft, mean draught 20ft.
Powered by a 2-cyl horizontal single expansion steam engine 774 ihp. single screw speed 8.6 knots. The engine was manufactured by John Penn & Sons.
Armament: Middle deck 12 – 8 inch and 16 – 32 pdr, upper deck 2 – 68 pdr. and 16 – 32pdr. guns.
Crew 450 men
08 January 1849 completed, building cost £83.183.
14 March 1849 commissioned at Portsmouth. Under command of Captain Robert Fitzroy.
First stationed at Portsmouth, then at Lisbon till 15 February 1850.
15 February 1850 command taken over by Captain Robert Spencer Robinson at Lisbon till paid off at Portsmouth.
30 August 1851 used in the Experimental Squadron and carried out speed trials at Portsmouth.
27 September 1852 after commissioning at Portsmouth under command of Captain Stephen Greville Fremantle, and stationed at Portsmouth.
24 October 1852 under command of Captain Hastings Reginald Yelverton, first at Portsmouth then in 1854 in the Baltic during the Russian War.
20 December 1855 he was relieved by Captain Henry Lystre till paying off at Portsmouth in 1856.
February 1856 in dock at Portsmouth.
23 April 1856 after her refit was she present at the Fleet Review, Spithead under command of Captain Lystre. She was after the refit re-ratted as a 47-gun vessel.
Then she was stationed in the West Indies and North America station, still under Captain Lystre.
25 February 1857 paid off, reserve vessel.
07 March 1858 after a refit of £21.763 at Portsmouth, re-commissioned as Coast Guard depot at Newhaven, used there from 18 March 1858 till 21 August 1859. She was that time under command of Captain Leopold George Heath.
23 August 1859 fitted out for sea under command of Commodore William Edmondstone on the West Coast of Africa as Senior Officer’s Ship.
06 December 1862 returned to the U.K. still under command of Edmondstone. After arrival paid off, again reserve.
March 1867 sold to Castle & Beech for breaking up at Charlton.
HECLA.
Built as a wooden paddle sloop by the Chatham Dry-dock for the Royal Navy.
12 March 1838 ordered.
July 1838 keel laid down.
14 January 1839 launched under the name HMS HECLA one of the Hydra class of which three were built.
Tonnage 814 ton (bm), displacement 1.096 ton. Dim. 165.0 x 32.10 x 20.4ft. Length of gundeck 143.7ft. Draught 12.1ft.
Powered by one 2-cyl. side-liver 220 nhp, manufactured by Boulton, Watt and Co. speed circa 9 knots.
Armament 2 – 8 inch (on pivots) and forward and aft 2 – 32pdr.
Crew 135.
28 August 1839 completed.
After completing under command of Lieutenant commander John Bettinson Gragg, stationed in the West Indies.
January 1843 out of commission at Woolwich.
21 January 1843 till 03 July 1846 under command of Commander John Duffill in the Mediterranean.
03 July 1846 till 1848 under command of Commander Charles Starmer in the Mediterranean.
Between 07 July and 12 July 1847 salvage of the MARY QUEEN.
20 December 1848 at Sheerness
During a refit between 1948 and 1949 her engine removed and replaced.
05 September 1849 under command of Commander Edward Halhead Beauchamp-Proctor on the west coast of Africa.
February 1851 sighted off the Congo on anti-slavery patrol.
1854 Under command of Captain William Hutcheon Hall in the Baltic.
21 June 1854 she bombarded the fort Bomarsund on the Åland Island, and during this action Lucas got his Victoria Cross.
04 November 1854 stationed in the Mediterranean, under command of Commander Henry Samuel Hawker.
14 May 1855 she was reported ashore at Gibraltar, on a voyage from Malaga to Gibraltar.
23 April 1856 present at the Fleet Review at Spithead under command of Commander Aplin.
1860 Re-rated as a 6th Rate sloop.
15 June 1863 sold for £2.550 to Williams & Co for commercial service, renamed TYPHOON.
Thereafter not any information more on her.
On Jersey 2006 £2 sg MS ?
Solomon Islands 2006 $2.20 sg?
Source: Jersey Post web-site. The Sail and Steam Navy List by Lyon and Winfield. http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=1555 http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=37 and other web-sites.