The rare Scinde campaign medal for the battle of Hyderabad awarded to Acting Master B....

The rare Scinde campaign medal for the battle of Hyderabad awarded to Acting Master B. Higgins, Indian Marine, commanding the Honourable Company’s Steamer Meteor Hyderabad 1843 (B: Higgins Act: Mr. E:I:C:. Sr. Meteor) officially impressed naming, fitted with original German silver bar suspension, good very fine £3,000-£4,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, April 2004. Confirmed on the roll which gives his initial as ‘R’. As Acting Master, Higgins commanded the East India Company steamer Meteor during the battle of Dhubba on 24 March 1843. A total of 52 medals were issued for Hyderabad to the crews of the Meteor (15), Comet (19), and Nimrod (18). The 61 Indian hands aboard the three steamers, were issued with unnamed medals. On the day following the battle of Meeanee, six of the opposing principal Amirs surrendered unconditionally as prisoners of war, who were later to be held captive in Hyderabad. On 20 February 1843 a British force accompanied by a party of seamen had taken formal possession of that place, wherein Sir Charles Napier formed a fortified camp. Shere Mahomed amassed an army of some twenty thousand Belooches by the latter days of March, and took up a strongly entrenched position at Dubba, about four miles from Hyderabad. Mahomed hoped to rescue the six Amirs from Napier’s fortified camp as the British came out to attack his lines. Once this intelligence was known, the six princes were moved to the security of the H.E.I.C. Vessel Comet, lying with steam up in the river awaiting immediate orders as circumstances might require. The other steamers, Meteor and Nimrod took up positions to protect the river side of the fortified camp. On 24 March Sir Charles Napier marched out with five thousand men to attack Shere Mahomed at Dubba, where the Belooch army were defeated. No seamen took part in the battle, these three steamers being several miles away from the battlefield, but their crews were awarded the medal for Hyderabad in recognition of their defensive ancillary activities.