THE
HERO OF THE HUMBER;
OR, THE
HISTORY OF THE LATE
MR. JOHN ELLERTHORPE
(FOREMAN OF THE HUMBER DOCK GATES, HULL),
BEING A RECORD OFREMARKABLE INCIDENTS IN HIS CAREER AS A SAILOR; HIS CONVERSION ANDCHRISTIAN USEFULNESS; HIS UNEQUALLED SKILL AS A SWIMMER, AND HISEXPLOITS ON THE WATER, WITH A MINUTE ACCOUNT OF HIS DEEDS OF DARING INSAVING, WITH HIS OWN HANDS, ON SEPARATE AND DISTINCT OCCASIONS, UPWARDSOF FORTY PERSONS FROM DEATH BY DROWNING: TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HISLAST AFFLICTION, DEATH, ETC.
BY THE
REV. HENRY WOODCOCK,
AUTHOR OF 'POPERY UNMASKED,' 'WONDERS OF GRACE,' ETC.
'My tale is simple and of humble birth, A tribute of respect to real worth.' |
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
S. W. Partridge, 9, Paternoster Row; Wesleyan Book Room,
66, Paternoster Row; Primitive Methodist Book Room, 6, Sutton
Street, Commercial Road, E.; and of all Booksellers.
1880
ALFORD:
J. HORNER, PRINTER,
MARKET-PLACE.
TO
THE SEAMEN OF GREAT BRITAIN,
TO WHOSE
SKILL, COURAGE, AND ENDURANCE,
ENGLAND OWES MUCH OF HER GREATNESS,
THIS VOLUME—
CONTAINING A RECORD OF THE CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF ONE,
WHO, FOR UPWARDS OF THIRTY YEARS,
BRAVED THE HARDSHIPS AND PERILS OF A SAILOR'S LIFE,
AND
WHOSE GALLANTRY AND HUMANITY
WON FOR HIM THE TITLE
OF
'THE HERO OF THE HUMBER,'
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
WITH THE EARNEST PRAYER
THAT THEY MAY EMBRACE THAT BENIGN RELIGION
WHICH NOT ONLY RESCUED THE 'HERO' FROM THE EVILS IN WHICH
HE HAD SO LONG INDULGED,
AND ENRICHED HIM WITH THE GRACES OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER,
BUT ALSO GAVE
A BRIGHTER GLOW AND GREATER ENERGY
TO THAT
COURAGE, GALLANTRY, AND HUMANITY
BY WHICH HE HAD BEEN LONG DISTINGUISHED.
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Mr. Gladstone, in a recent lecture thus defines a hero: quoting Latham'sdefinition of a hero,—'a man eminent for bravery,' he said he was notsatisfied with that, because bravery might be mere animal bravery.Carlyle had described Napoleon I. as a great hero. 'Now he (Mr.Gladstone) was not prepared to admit that Napoleon was a hero. He wascertainly one of the most extraordinary men ever born. There was morepower concentrated in that brain than in any brain probably born forcenturies. That he was a great man in the sense of being a man oftranscendent power, there was no doubt; but his life was tainted withselfishness from beginning to end, and he was not ready to admit that aman whose life was fundamentally tainted with selfishness was a hero. Agreater hero than Napoleon was the captain of a ship which was run downin the Channel three or four years ago, who, when the ship wasquivering, and the water was gurgling round her, and the boats had beenlowered to save such persons as could be saved, stood by the bulwarkwith a pistol in his hand and threatened to shoot dead the first man whoendeavoured to get into the boat until every woman and child wasprovided for. His true idea of a hero was this:—A hero was a man whomust have ends beyond himself, in casting himself as it were out ofhimself, a