[6] Ellen Southard plied international trade routes from her homeport in Bath, Maine, with visits documented in ports as far away as Sydney, Australia.

[11] In June 1867, shortly after departing Hong Kong for California with 360 Chinese passengers, Ellen Southard's master, Captain Howe, died at sea.

[14][15] On 12 August 1875, Ellen Southard set sail for Liverpool in England from Saint John, New Brunswick, under the command of Captain Henry Woodworth[16][b] with a load of tropical deal, a type of softwood.

After receiving the pilot on board, she was taken in tow by the steamtug United Kingdom under the command of Captain Griffiths for the final leg of her journey into the port of Liverpool.

Finding that it was unable to offer further assistance, the tug set off for Liverpool with the purpose of returning with a lifeboat, but was soon grounded, thereby leaving the stricken American ship to fend for herself.

The steward, who was the last person on the doomed ship, decided to go back to recover his bag; minutes passed while the people in the lifeboat waited anxiously until he eventually re-appeared and joined them.

The New Brighton lifeboat was still about 500 yards (460 m) away when the Liverpool boat left the wreck, and thus coxswain Richard Thomas turned her around once it became apparent that everyone had already been taken off the ship successfully.

[16] The wind, tide and sea made it impossible for the Liverpool lifeboat to link up with the waiting tug for another tow, so the men were forced to start rowing home.

Six of Ellen Southard's crew, the captain and his wife, as well as the pilot and three lifeboat men from Mersey Docks drowned or died of exposure (12 fatalities in total).

General Lucius Fairchild, the United States consul at Liverpool, wrote to his government recommending that the gallantry of the Englishmen who were involved in the rescue effort be recognised.

The medals were conferred in a public ceremony in Liverpool Town Hall on 27 February 1877 that was attended by the US Consul and the masters of most of the US ships that were in port at the time.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a life-saving medal of the first class which has been awarded to you, under the authority of the provisions of the seventh section of the Act of the Congress of the United States, approved June 20, 1874, for the extreme and heroic daring manifested by you in the rescue, under circumstances of peculiar danger and difficulty, of eight persons from the wreck of the American ship "Ellen Southard," at the mouth of the river Mersey, near Liverpool.

The extreme jeopardy and hardships you encountered upon the occasion of their rescue are deeply appreciated, and, in behalf of the United States, I beg you to accept this testimonial, provided by law in recognition of such deeds of bravery and compassion.

In sending it, allow me to add the expression of the sense of the gallantry and the devotion to high human duty which marked the conduct of yourself and of your comrades upon the occasion under notice, and of the assurance that each member of your crew, in his own person, by this deed of valor and mercy, confers fresh and just honor upon the great name of England.