Harry L. Smith

Harry L. Smith helped to rescue eight persons from exposure, Block Island, Rhode Island, February 12, 1907. The Elsie, a 60-foot, two-masted fishing schooner, was taken five miles to sea by her eight-man crew to look for survivors of the steamer Larchmont, which had collided with another boat during the night. The thermometer registered 2 degrees, the wind blew at 35 m.p.h., and the waves were running 20 feet high. The crew of the Elsie, including Smith, 24, fisherman, who was in charge of the engine, came across Larchmont wreckage holding 15 castaways, seven of whom were found to have been frozen to death. Four of the Elsie’s crew took two 12-foot dories to the wreckage, from which they removed the survivors, with much difficulty. After the dories returned to the Elsie, Smith jumped into one of them and tied hoisting lines to two of the victims. All hands assisted in getting the rescued aboard the ice-coated schooner, and the Elsie returned to Old Harbor, the mission having taken three hours. All but one of the eight victims survived. GOLD MEDAL. (See case of JOHN W. SMITH.)