Near-land shipwrecks were big enough a problem for the coastal states that they formed societies to raise funds to enact life-saving measures, and appealed to Congress for more funding. Congress doled out money piecemeal to these groups, and then set out on organizing a series of “life-saving stations,” permanently manned, tasked with helping nearby shipwreck survivors.

On this day, June 20, in 1874, Capt. Lucian M. Clemons, a keeper of one of the life-saving stations, received the first U.S. gold medal for lifesaving for his heroics in saving two men from the shipwrecked merchant schooner Consuelo.

The Consuelo was loaded with heavy cargo, improperly secured, when a nasty storm overtook it. The pitching seas and the shifting load capsized the boat; just two men were left clinging to wreckage. Clemons and his brother set out in a little lifeboat in the raging seas to pick up the two men. They had little strength left after reaching the two sailors, and would have all likely perished if not for the timely arrival of a tugboat.