Obverse: Within a cable and pearl border in high relief a single funnelled paddle -steamer sinking (right) a pier with the bow of a steamer alongside (left) and in the distance a beacon and hills. Reverse: Inscription 'Subscribers medal presented to Patrick McKay for heroic efforts in saving life at the wreck of the Chusan, in Ardrossan Harbour, 21st Octr 1874'.

‘Chusan’ was a paddle steamer, newly built by John Elder & Co., for the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company and intended for local trade between Shanghai and Hankow. Bound from Glasgow to Shanghai, she put back from Waterford, Ireland for repairs and was wrecked in a gale on the Crinan rock in Ardrossan Harbour. The ship broke in two, the fore part drifted into the inner harbour and all the men on board were saved except one; the stern sank. There were delays in launching the lifeboat and some of the coastguard were absent, survivors were initially taken off by a boat manned by volunteers and a tug. Another boat tried to rescue a man trapped in the wreckage. Nine members of the crew of 51 were drowned – the American captain, second mate and seven seamen - four Jamaicans, two West Africans and one man from the East Indies. The captain’s wife, child and sister-in-law were saved. There is a memorial commemorating the disaster in Ardrossan Cemetery.

Patrick McKay, pig iron labourer, was one of four men, (the others, all carpenters, were John Templeton, Gavin Kean, and Archibald Boyd,) who put out in a small boat and repeatedly tried to save a man trapped in the wreck but ultimately failed to do so. Two men with this name, whose occupation is given as 'labourer', are listed in the 1871 census. Both were resident at 108 Princes Lane. The younger was born at Saltcoats, Ayrshire in about 1852, his father was born in County Down, Ireland in about 1821. The four rescuers worked in Ardrossan's local industries - the building of wooden ships and the export of coal and pig iron.