Henry Honeychruch Gorringe

Obverse

DISCIPULUS EST PRIORI -- POSTERIOR DIES; Obelisk, eagle seated on arms, shield.

Reverse

PRESENTED TO THE UNITED STATES BY ISMAIL KHEDIVE OF EGYPT/ 1881; Quarried at Syene / and erected at Heliopolis by / THOTHMES III / re-erected at ALEXANDRIA / under AUGUSTUS / removed to New York / through the liberality of / W. H. Vanderbilt / by the skill / Lieu. Com. H. H. Gorringe U.S.N.

http://numismatics.org/search/results?q=subjectPerson_facet:%22Vanderbilt,%20W.H.%22

An inner border, ornamented with stars, representing the States of the Union, separates somewhat the legend from the subject, and the ground of the outer circle, on which the motto is placed, is filled in with the conventional lotos, cut in low relief under the lettering, appropriately suggesting a souvenir of Egypt.

The bronze crabs placed at each corner of the obelisk are the substitutes of the original ones placed there by the Romans; they bear the following legends, which it seems appropriate to reproduce here as matters of historical record:

First crab, first claw:

(Outside.) (Inside.)
L.H P ANNO VIII

BAPBAPO ANEHKE AVGVSTI CAESARIS

APXITEKTON ONTO BARBARVS PRAEF

ONTIO AEGYPTI POSVIT

ARCHITECTANTE PONTIO

(Reproduced from the original!)

Second claw (cartouche of Thothmes III):

Quarried at Syene, Egypt; erected at Heliopolis, Egypt, by Thothmes III in the sixteenth century B. C.

Second crab, first claw:

Removed to Alexandria, Egypt, and erected there B. C. 22 by the Romans.

Second claw:

Removed to the United States of America A. D. 1880, and erected in New York City January 22, 1881.

Third crab, first claw:

Presented to the United States Government by Ismail, Khedive of Egypt.

Second claw:

Rutherford Burchard Hayes, President; William Maxwell Evarts, Secretary of State of the United States.

Fourth crab, first claw:

The cost of removing from Egypt and placing on this spot this obelisk, pedestal, and base, was borne by William H. Vanderbilt.

Second claw:

Lieutenant-Commander Henry H. Gorringe, USN, designed the plans for and superintended the removal and re-erection.

The singing of "Old Hundred" followed the presentation of medals and terminated the ceremonies.

The following are the names of the medal recipients:
William H. Vanderbilt.

Lieutenant-Commander Henry H. Gorringe, U. S. Navy.

Matthew Francis Farrell, Thomas G. Killeen, Clifford Bishop, Clarence G. Christie, George E. Clark, Eli Schreyer, George Cornell, Edward A. Bruen, Richard Schumacher, William Mitchell, John E. Timmons, Jesse Rosenthal, Josiah Ramsey Wray, William Klottman, Max Joseph Zahed, Adam Kellerman, Samuel J. Koplik, Herman 0. Bohlen, Charles Keller, Saly Frankenberg, Frank Pokarny, Diederich F. B. Winter, Floyd S. Neely, Charles Geigerman, Julius Charles Bernheim, John McKie, William A. Painter, Hugo Reichart, Charles Strodl, Frederick Biermann, Julius W. Miiller, Gabriel Ettinger, Herman Kaufman, Alexander Donald, Henry L. C. Wenk, Julius Reinecke, Edward P. Shields, Andrew Wieland, Herbert Joseph Carr, Robert J. Dyatt, Peter C. Brady, George H. Huneke, Samuel S. M. Pettit, Charles Knapp, William Arthur Gage, George Philip Kohlman, Michael Stern, Charles H. Overbeck, Henry A. Sherman, Theodore H. Banks, Frank B. Poor, Julius Grunow, Charles Schalkenstein, William L. Saulpaugh, Horatio N. Flanagan, Samuel Linderman, Charles E. See, John W. Wood, Henry H. Jackson, Frank Jones, Julius Rogaliner, George G. Isaacs, Joseph P. Hannigan, Eugene O'Brien, Reuben Muller, James Cavanagh Brady, Henry Powell, William O. Holly, Daniel Quinn, William A. Dabbie, Frederick H. Cumming, Robert E. Dowling, James Houghton Strong, Eugene Henry Hceber, Robert Fitch Shedden, Joseph Jacob Myers, Charles Warren Holton, Herbert C. McKenzie, Charles W. Irving, Cornelius Carbonell, Adam F. Pentz, Martin Strauss, Benjamin Veit, David A. Pollor, Thomas William Timpson, George Urstadt, Charles Ellworth Atwater, Henry M. Walter, William C. Littlewood, Frank Loomis Eckerson, Arthur J. Lawrence, David Willard Lamberson, Samuel Whitney Dunscomb, Charles Alexander Clinton, William Russell Bennett, Garret Schenck Roome, William C. Guth, Alfred W. Pinneo, David D. Jacobus, Abbert Finkelstein, Emlin Frecklin.

It remains only to state the cost, to complete the record of the removal of the obelisk.

The actual net expenditure for material and labor for the whole operation aggregated eighty-six thousand six hundred and three dollars ($86,603). Of this sum fifty-seven thousand eight hundred and seventy-one dollars ($57,871) were expended on the obelisk, and twenty-eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-two dollars ($28,732) on the pedestal, steps, and foundation. The incidental and contingent expenditures, in which are included interest, commissions for use of money, and backsheesh, amounted to fifteen thousand nine hundred and seventy-three dollars ($15,973) additional. By backsheesh is meant the various amounts paid to different persons whose good-will was necessary to success, and whose ill-will would have involved delays and lawsuits that would have been ultimately more costly. The total cost was therefore one hundred and two thousand five hundred and seventy-six dollars ($102,576). Mr. Vanderbilt had agreed to pay seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) when the obelisk had been re-erected in Central Park,1 and subsequently agreed to pay the cost of removing the pedestal, foundation, and steps. After the obelisk had reached New York he advanced forty-five thousand dollars ($45,000) to defray current expenses of completing the work. In February, 1881, after the obelisk had been erected, he paid the balance, making a total of one hundred and three thousand seven hundred and thirty-two dollars ($103,732) paid by him. The difference, eleven hundred and fifty-six dollars ($1,156), was the net profits derived from the fulfillment of my agreement.

As to the steamer "Dessoug ": The money to purchase, refit, and operate her was advanced by two friends, under an agreement with me that I was to have absolute control of her until the obelisk had been disembarked. In consideration for this I agreed to pay them thirteen hundred pounds sterling (^"1,300, $6,327) "for freight and other charges for transporting, from Alexandria to New York, the obelisk, its pedestal, and foundation, and the materials used in removing them." I was also "to pay all expenses incurred in loading, stowing, and discharging the obelisk and pedestal." I further agreed to sell the steamer to the best possible advantage for their sole benefit and to guarantee them against loss. These terms were exceedingly liberal compared with the proposals for charter of other steamers that had been made me.

After the obelisk had been disembarked at Staten Island, the aperture in the "Dessoug's" bow was closed and she was towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where Commodore G. H. Cooper, the Commandant, had kindly offered me space to lay her up.

A favorable opportunity to sell the steamer to a foreign company, to ply between New York and West India ports under foreign register and flag, occurred very soon after the obelisk had been disembarked. It seemed, however, desirable that the vessel, identified as she was with the work of removing the obelisk, should have an American register. To accomplish this a special act of Congress was necessary. Soon after Congress met I visited Washington and conferred with Mr. Darius Lyman, Chief of Navigation Division, Treasury Department, who drew the following:

JOINT RESOLUTION authorizing the inspection and issue of an American register to the Egyptian steamship "Dessoug."

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby, authorized to issue an American register to the steamship"Dessoug," of Egyptian nationality but of American ownership; and that the inspection of her machinery and hull shall be restricted by the inspectors of steam-vessels simply to the inquiry as to their safety for the conveyance of passengers, without reference to the mode or place of their construction; and that a special certificate of inspection may be issued for said steamship.

1 See Correspondence, p. 5.

I took a copy of this to the Honorable William M. Evarts, Secretary of State, who gave me the following letter to Senator Matt W. Ransom, of North Carolina, and Representative John H. Reagan, of Texas, chairmen respectively of the Senate and House Committees of Congress.

Department Of State, Washington, Jan. 5, 1881.

Sir: I have the honor to bring to your attention, and, through your committee, that of the Senate, the eminent propriety of procuring the passage of an act granting an American register to the steamer "Dessoug," purchased by Lieutenant-Commander H. H. Gorringe, of the United States Navy, and employed by him in the successful transportation of the obelisk known as "Cleopatra's Needle" from Alexandria, Egypt, to New York.

The circumstances under which the obelisk was presented by the government of Egypt to the city of New York are so familiar that I need merely advert to the brilliant service rendered by Lieutenant-Commander Gorringe, involving the assumption of considerable personal risk on his part, and notably so in the purchase and alteration of a sea-going steamer for the transportation of the monolith.

The sentiment of national pride naturally felt in this successful achievement, coupled with the international character of Mr. Gorringe's service, makes it fitting that some appropriate action should be taken by Congress in the premises, and in no way could this be more appropriately done than by permanently identifying the vessel in question with the country and flag to which she has rendered so signal a service.

I am informed that the prominent merchants and ship-owners of New York are in favor of some such recognition of what Lieutenant-Commander Gorringe has done in behalf of their city, and that the course suggested would not be opposed by any conflicting shipbuilding interest.

The accompanying draft of a bill has been prepared as suitable to the desired end, subject to the consideration and approval of your committee, to which I earnestly commend it.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

W. M. EVARTS, Secretary of State.

The resolution was passed by the Senate on January 28, 1881; by the House on February 1, 1881, and approved by the President on February 8, 1881. Senator Francis Kiernan and Representatives Anson G. McCook, of New York, John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky, and W. C. Whitthorne, of Tennessee, together with the chairmen of the committees, were chiefly instrumental in pushing it through the crowded calendar of an expiring Congress and against a decided opposition to its passage that was unexpectedly developed. To strengthen their efforts four petitions for the passage of the resolution, signed by several hundred members of the Produce Exchange and other commercial bodies of New York, were presented at different times to Congress while the measure was pending. These petitions were prepared and circulated chiefly through the efforts of Mr. T. H. Parker, President of the Produce Exchange, Mr. W. H. Paton, and Mr. Marvelle W. Cooper, merchants of New York.

The "Dessoug" was sold to the Ocean Steamship Co. of Savannah, for a less sum than that offered for her by the foreign company. This fact is recorded in order to prove that the value of the vessel was not enhanced by granting her an American register, as was stated in some of the newspapers at the time and has never been denied.

The following was introduced in the House of Representatives by the Honorable Abram S. Hewitt, of New York, passed unanimously by that body, called up in the Senate by the Honorable T. F. Bayard, of Delaware, and passed unanimously there:

JOINT RESOLUTION tendering the thanks of the people of the United States, to His Highness, the Khedive of Egypt, for the gift of an ancient obelisk.

Whereas, the Khedive of Egypt presented to the United States the ancient Egyptian obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle, which has been removed and re-erected in the city of New York, thus placing in the possession of the people of the United States one of the most famous monuments of the Old World and one of the earliest records of civilization; Be it therefore,

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the thanks of the people of the United States are hereby tendered to His Highness, the Khedive of Egypt, for a gift which only the oldest of nations could make and the youngest can most highly prize.

Approved, January 12, 1881.