Recognition
President McKinley recognized the achievements of the rescue in a letter dated January 17, 1899 to the United States Congress, in which he asked Congress to award the three officers "gold medals of honor" "commemorative of their heroic struggles in aid of suffering fellow-men." He also recommended $2,500 to be disbursed by the United States Secretary of the Treasury to W.T. Lopp, Artisarlook, and the native herders who helped.
In recognition of their work, Bertholf, Call, and Jarvis received Congressional Gold Medals in 1902. The statute reads as follows:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to bestow a gold medal of honor, of such design as he may approve, upon First Lieutenant David H. Jarvis, Second Lieutenant Ellsworth P. Bertholf, and Doctor Samuel J. Call, surgeon, all of the Revenue-Cutter Service and members of the overland expedition of eighteen hundred and ninety-seven and eighteen hundred and ninety-eight for the relief of the whaling fleet in the arctic regions, in recognition of the heroic service rendered by them in connection with said expedition.
Read more about this topic: Overland Relief Expedition
Famous quotes containing the word recognition:
“Justice begins with the recognition of the necessity of sharing. The oldest law is that which regulates it, and this is still the most important law today and, as such, has remained the basic concern of all movements which have at heart the community of human activities and of human existence in general.”
—Elias Canetti (b. 1905)
“I waited and worked, and watched the inferior exalted for nearly thirty years; and when recognition came at last, it was too late to alter events, or to make a difference in living.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“The person who designed a robot that could act and think as well as your four-year-old would deserve a Nobel Prize. But there is no public recognition for bringing up several truly human beings.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)