The Hero of the Humber
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Henry Woodcock >> The Hero of the Humber
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11 THE
HERO OF THE HUMBER;
OR, THE
HISTORY OF THE LATE
MR. JOHN ELLERTHORPE
(FOREMAN OF THE HUMBER DOCK GATES, HULL),
BEING A RECORD OF
REMARKABLE INCIDENTS IN HIS CAREER AS A SAILOR; HIS CONVERSION AND
CHRISTIAN USEFULNESS; HIS UNEQUALLED SKILL AS A SWIMMER, AND HIS
EXPLOITS ON THE WATER, WITH A MINUTE ACCOUNT OF HIS DEEDS OF DARING IN
SAVING, WITH HIS OWN HANDS, ON SEPARATE AND DISTINCT OCCASIONS, UPWARDS
OF FORTY PERSONS FROM DEATH BY DROWNING: TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HIS
LAST 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's
definition of a hero,--'a man eminent for bravery,' he said he was not
satisfied 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 was
certainly one of the most extraordinary men ever born. There was more
power concentrated in that brain than in any brain probably born for
centuries. That he was a great man in the sense of being a man of
transcendent power, there was no doubt; but his life was tainted with
selfishness from beginning to end, and he was not ready to admit that a
man whose life was fundamentally tainted with selfishness was a hero. A
greater hero than Napoleon was the captain of a ship which was run down
in the Channel three or four years ago, who, when the ship was
quivering, and the water was gurgling round her, and the boats had been
lowered to save such persons as could be saved, stood by the bulwark
with a pistol in his hand and threatened to shoot dead the first man who
endeavoured to get into the boat until every woman and child was
provided for. His true idea of a hero was this:--A hero was a man who
must have ends beyond himself, in casting himself as it were out of
himself, and must pursue these ends by means which were honourable, the
lawful means, otherwise he might degenerate into a wild enthusiast. He
must do this without distortion or disturbance of his nature as a man,
because there were cases of men who were heroes in great part, but who
were so excessively given to certain ideas and objects of their own,
that they lost all the proportion of their nature. There were other
heroes, who, by giving undue prominence to one idea, lost the just
proportion of things, and became simply men of one idea. A man to be a
hero must pursue ends beyond himself by legitimate means. He must pursue
them as a man, not as a dreamer. Not to give to some one idea
disproportionate weight which it did not deserve, and forget everything
else which belonged to the perfection and excellence of human nature. If
he did all this he was a hero, even if he had not very great powers; and
if he had great powers, then he was a consummate hero.'
Now, if we cannot claim for the late Mr. Ellerthorpe 'great powers' of
intellect, we are quite sure that all who read the following pages will
agree that the title bestowed upon him by his grateful and admiring
townsman,--'The Hero of the Humber,' was well and richly deserved. He
was a 'Hero,' though he lived in a humble cottage. He was a man of
heroic sacrifices; his services were of the noblest kind; he sought the
highest welfare of his fellow-creatures with an energy never surpassed;
his generous and impulsive nature found its highest happiness in
promoting the welfare of others. He is held as a benefactor in the fond
recollection of thousands of his fellow countrymen, and he received
rewards far more valuable and satisfying than those which his Queen and
Government bestowed upon him: more lasting than the gorgeous pageantries
and emblazoned escutcheon that reward the hero of a hundred battles.
The warrior's deeds may win
An earthly fame, but deeds by mercy wrought,
Are heaven's own register within:
Not one shall be forgot.
The scene of most of his gallant exploits in rescuing human lives was
'The river Humber;' hence the title given him by a large gathering of
his fellow townsmen.
The noble river Humber, upon which the town of Kingston-upon-Hull is
seated, may be considered the Thames of the Midland and Northern
Counties of England. It divides the East Riding of Yorkshire from
Lincolnshire, during the whole of its course, and is formed by the
junction of the Ouse and the Trent. At Bromfleet, it receives the little
river Foulness, and rolling its vast collection of waters eastward, in a
stream enlarged to between two and three miles in breadth, washes the
town of Hull, where it receives the river of the same name. Opposite to
Hedon and Paul, which are a few miles below Hull, the Humber widens into
a vast estuary, six or seven miles in breadth, and then directs it's
course past Great Grimsby to the German Ocean, which it enters at Spurn
Head. No other river system collects waters from so many important towns
as this famous stream. 'The Humber,' says a recent writer, 'resembling
the trunk of a vast tree spreading its branches in every direction,
commands, by the numerous rivers which it receives, the navigation and
trade of a very extensive and commercial part of England.'
The Humber, between its banks, occupies an area of about one hundred and
twenty-five square miles. The rivers Ouse and Trent which, united, form
the Humber, receive the waters of the Aire, Calder, Don, Old Don,
Derwent, Idle, Sheaf, Soar, Nidd, Yore, Wharfe, &c., &c.
From the waters of this far-famed river--the Humber--Mr. Ellerthorpe
rescued thirty-one human beings from drowning.
For the rapid sale of 3,500 copies of the 'Life of the Hero,' the Author
thanks a generous public. A series of articles extracted from the first
edition appeared in '_Home Words_.' An illustrated article also appears
in Cassell's '_Heroes of Britain in Peace and War_,' in which the writer
speaks of the present biography as '_That very interesting book in which
the history of Ellerthorpe's life is told_. (P. 1. 2. PART XI.) The
Author trusts that the present edition, containing an account of '_The
Hero's_' last affliction, death, funeral, etc., will render the work
additionally interesting.
THE WRITER.
_53, Leonard Street, Hull, Aug. 4th, 1880._
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. His wicked and reckless career 1
II. His conversion and inner experience 6
III. His Christian labours 14
IV. His staunch teetotalism 22
V. His bold adventures on the water 31
VI. His method of rescuing the drowning 44
VII. His gallant and humane conduct in rescuing the drowning 51
VIII. The honoured hero 95
IX. His general character, death, etc. 116
X. The hero's funeral 122
The Hero of the Humber.
CHAPTER I.
HIS WICKED AND RECKLESS CAREER AS A SAILOR.
The fine old town of Hull has many institutions of which it is
deservedly proud. There is the Charter house, a monument of practical
piety of the days of old. There is the Literary and Philosophical
Institute, with its large and valuable library, and its fine museum,
each of which is most handsomely housed. There is the new Town Hall, the
work of one of the town's most gifted sons. There is the tall column
erected in honour of Wilberforce, in the days when the representatives
of the law were expected to obey the laws, and when the cultivation of a
philanthropic feeling towards the negro had not gone out of fashion.
There is the Trinity House, with its magnificent endowments, which have
for more than five centuries blessed the mariners of the port, and which
is now represented by alms-houses, so numerous, so large, so externally
beautiful, and so trimly kept as to be both morally and architecturally
among the noblest ornaments of the town. There is the Port of Hull
Society, with its chapel, its reading-rooms, its orphanage, its seaman's
mission, all most generously supported. There is that leaven of ancient
pride which also may be classed among the institutions of the place,
and which operates in giving to a population by no means wealthy a habit
of respectability, and a look for the most part well-to-do. But among
none of these will be found the institution to which we are about to
refer. The institution that we are to-day concerned to honour is
compact, is self-supporting, is eminently philanthropic, has done more
good with very limited means than any other, and is so much an object of
legitimate pride, that we have pleasure in making this unique
institution more generally known. A life-saving institution that has in
the course of a few brief years rescued about fifty people from
drowning, and that has done so without expectation of reward, deserves
to be named, and the name of this institution is simply that of a
comparatively poor man--John Ellerthorpe, dock gatekeeper, at the
entrance of the Humber Dock.'
Such was the strain in which the _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_, in a
Leader (March 17th, 1868), spoke of the character and doings of him whom
a grateful and admiring town entitled 'The Hero of the Humber.'
[Sidenote: HIS NATIVITY.]
He was born at Rawcliffe, a small village near Snaith, Yorkshire, in the
year 1806. His ancestors, as far as we can trace them, were all
connected with the sea-faring life. His father, John Ellerthorpe, owned
a 'Keel' which sailed between Rawcliffe and the large towns in the West
Riding of Yorkshire, and John often accompanied him during his voyages.
His mother was a woman of great practical sagacity and unquestionable
honesty and piety, and from her young John extended many of the high and
noble qualities which distinguished his career. Much of his childhood,
however, was passed at the 'Anchor' public house, Rawcliffe, kept by his
paternal grandmother, where he early became an adept swearer and a lover
of the pot, and for upwards of forty years--to use his own language--he
was 'a drunken blackard.'
When John was ten years of age his father removed to Hessle. About this
time John heard that flaming evangelist, the Rev. William Clowes, preach
near the 'old pump' at Hessle, and he retired from the service with good
resolutions in his breast, and sought a place of prayer. Soon after he
heard the famous John Oxtoby preach, and he says, 'I was truly converted
under his sermon, and for sometime I enjoyed a clear sense of
forgiveness.' His mother's heart rejoiced at the change; but from his
father, who was an habitual drunkard, he met with much opposition and
persecution, and being but a boy, and possessing a very impressionable
nature, John soon joined his former corrupt associates and cast off, for
upwards of thirty years, even the form of prayer.
[Sidenote: HIS LOVE OF THE WATER.]
Ellerthorpe was born with a passion for salt water. He was reared on the
banks of a well navigated river, the Humber, and, in his boyhood, he
liked not only to be on the water, but _in_ it. He also accompanied his
father on his voyages, and when left at home he spent most of his time
in the company of seamen, and these awakened within him the tastes and
ambition of a sailor. He went to sea when fourteen years of age, and for
three years sailed in the brig 'Jubilee,' then trading between Hull and
London. The next four years were spent under Captain Knill, on board of
the 'Westmoreland,' trading between Hull and Quebec, America. Afterwards
he spent several years in the Baltic trade. When the steam packet,
'Magna Charter,' began to run between Hull and New Holland, John became
a sailor on board and afterwards Captain of the vessel. He next became
Captain of a steamer that ran between Barton and Hessle. He then sailed
in a vessel between Hull and America. In 1845, he entered the service of
the Hull Dock Company, in which situation he remained up to the time of
his death.
[Sidenote: HIS YOUTHFUL CAREER.]
Fifty years ago our sailors, generally speaking, were a grossly wicked
class of men. A kind of special license to indulge in all kinds of sin
was given to the rough and hardy men whose occupation was on the mighty
deep. Landsmen, while comfortably seated round a winter's fire,
listening to the storm and tempest raging without, were not only struck
with amazement at the courage and endurance of sailors in exposing
themselves to the elements, but, influenced by their imagination,
magnified the energy and bravery that overcame them. Peasants gazed with
wild astonishment on the village lad returned, after a few years
absence, a veritable 'Jack tar.' The credulity of these delighted
listeners tempted Jack to 'spin his yarns,' and tell his tales of
nautical adventures, real or imaginary. Hence, he was everywhere greeted
with a genial and profuse hospitality. The best seat in the house, the
choicest drinks in the cellar, were for Jack. Our ships of commerce,
like so many shuttles, were rapidly weaving together the nations of the
earth in friendly amity. Besides, a romantic sentiment and feeling,
generated to a great extent by the victories which our invincible navy
had won during the battles of the Nile, and perpetuated by Nelson's
sublime battle cry, 'England expects every man to do his duty,' helped
to swell the tide of sympathy in favour of the sailor. Under these
circumstances Jack became Society's indulged and favoured guest; and yet
he remained outside of it. 'Peculiarities incident to his profession,
and which ought to have been corrected by education and religion, became
essential features of character in the public mind. A sailor became an
idea--a valuable menial in the service of the commonwealth, but as
strange and as eccentric in his habits as the walk of some amphibious
animal, or web-footed aquatic on land. To purchase a score of watches,
and to fry them in a pan with beer, to charter half a dozen coaches, and
invite foot passengers inside, while he 'kept on deck,' or in any way to
scatter his hard earnings of a twelvemonth in as many hours, was
considered frolicsome thoughtlessness, which was more than compensated
by the throwing away of a purse of gold to some poor woman in distress.'
Land-sharks and crimps beset the young sailor in every sea port; low
music halls and dingy taverns and beer shops presented their
attractions; and there the 'jolly tars' used to swallow their poisonous
compounds, and roar out ribald songs, and dance their clumsy fandangoes
with the vilest outcasts of society. 'It is a necessary evil,' said
some; 'it is the very nature of sailors, poor fellows.' While the
thoughtless multitude were immensely tickled with Jack's mad antics and
drolleries. Generous to a fault to all who were in need, Jack's motto
was:--
While there's a shot in the locker, a messmate to bless,
It shall always be shared with a friend in distress.
[Sidenote: JACK'S FROLICS.]
Amid such scenes as these our friend spent a great portion of his youth
and early manhood. The loud ribald laugh, the vile jest and song, the
midnight uproar, the drunken row, the flaunting dress and impudent
gestures of the wretched women who frequent our places of ungodly
resort--amid such scenes as these, did he waste his precious time and
squander away much of his hard earned money. But though a wild and
reckless sailor, his warm and generous heart was ever impelling him to
noble and generous deeds. If he sometimes became the dupe of the
designing, and indulged in the wild revelry of passion, at other times
he gave way to an outburst of generosity bordering on prodigality,
relieving the necessities of the poor, or true to the instincts of a
British tar standing up to redress the wrongs of the oppressed.
CHAPTER II.
HIS CONVERSION AND INNER EXPERIENCE.
When far away on the sea, and while mingling in all the dissipated
scenes of a sailor's life, John would sometimes think of those youthful
days--the only sunny spot in his life's journey--when he 'walked in the
fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.' Serious thoughts
would rise in his mind, and those seeds of truth, sown in his heart
while listening to Clowes and Oxtoby, and which for years seemed dead,
would be quickened into life. He had often wished to hear Mr. Clowes
once more, and on seeing a placard announcing that he would preach at
the opening of the Nile Street Chapel, Hull (1846), he hastened home,
and, sailor-like, quaintly observed to his wife, 'Why that old Clowes is
living and is going to preach. Let's go and hear him.' On the following
Sunday he went to the chapel, but it was so many years since he had been
to God's house that he now felt ashamed to enter, and for some minutes
he wandered to and fro in front of the chapel. At length he ventured to
go in, and sat down in a small pew just within the door. His mind was
deeply affected, and ere the next Sabbath he had taken two sittings in
the chapel.
About this time, the Rev. Charles Jones, of blessed memory, began his
career as a missionary in Hull. He laboured during six years, with great
success, in the streets, and yards, and alleys of the town; and scores
now in heaven and hundreds on their way thither, will, through all
eternity, have to bless God that Primitive Methodism ever sent him to
labour in Hull. The Rev. G. Lamb prepared the people to receive him by
styling him 'a bundle of love.' John went to hear him, and charmed by
his preaching and allured by the grace of God, his religious feelings
were deepened. Soon after this, and through the labours of Mr. Lamb, he
obtained peace with God, and I have heard him say at our lovefeasts,
'Jones knocked me down, but it was Mr. Lamb that picked me up.'
[Sidenote: HIS SERIOUS IMPRESSIONS.]
[Sidenote: HIS CONVERSION.]
Being invited by two Christian friends to attend a class meeting on the
following Sabbath morning, he went. As he sat in that old room in West
Street Chapel, a thousand gloomy thoughts and fearful apprehensions
crossed his mind, and casting many a glance towards the door, he '_felt
as though he must dart out_.' But when Mr. John Sissons, the leader of
the class, said, with his usual kind smile and sympathizing look:--'I'm
glad to see you,' and then proceeded to give him suitable council and
encouragement, John's heart melted and his eyes filled with tears; and,
on being invited to repeat his visit on the following Sabbath, he at
once consented. One of the friends who had accompanied him to the class,
said, 'Now God has sown the seed of grace in your heart and the enemy
will try to sow tares, but if you resist the devil he will flee from
you,' and scarcely had John left the room _ere the battle began_. 'Oh,
what a fool' he thought, 'I was to promise to go again,' and when he got
home he said to his wife, 'I've been to class, and what is worse, I have
promised to go again, and I dar'nt run off.' Mrs. Ellerthorpe, who had
begun to watch with some interest her husband's struggles, wisely
replied, 'Go, for you cannot go to a better place, I intend to go to Mr.
Jones' class.' All the next week John was in great perplexity, thinking,
'What can I say if I go? If I tell them the same tale I told them last
week they will say I've got it off by memory.' On the following Sabbath
morning he was in the street half resolved not to go to class, when he
thought, 'Did'nt my friend say the devil would tempt me and that I was
to resist him? Perhaps it is the devil that is filling me with these
distressing feelings, but I'll resist him,' and, suiting his action to
his words, in a moment, John was seen darting along the street at his
utmost speed; nor did he pause till, panting and almost breathless, he
found himself seated in the vestry of the Primitive Methodist Chapel,
West Street. He regarded that meeting as the turning point in his
spiritual history, and in the review it possessed to him an undying
charm. There a full, free, and present salvation was pressed on the
people. The short way to the cross was pointed out. The blessedness of
the man whose transgression is forgiven was realized. The direct and
comforting witness of the Holy Spirit to the believer's adoption was
proclaimed. And there believers were exhorted to grow richer in holiness
and riper in knowledge every day. And while John sat and listened to
God's people, he felt a divine power coming down from on high, which he
could not comprehend, but which, however, he joyously experienced. He
joined the class that morning and continued a member five years, when he
became connected with our new chapel in Thornton Street. Around these
services in the old vestry at West Street, cluster the grateful
recollections of many now living and of numbers who have crossed the
flood. How often has that room resounded with the cries of penitent
sinners and the songs of rejoicing believers?
[Sidenote: VISITS HIS MOTHER.]
Soon after our friend had united himself with the people of God he paid
a visit to his mother, who was in a dying state. It was on a beautiful
Sabbath morning, in the month of June, and while walking along the road,
between Hull and Hessle, and reflecting on the change he had
experienced, he was filled 'unutterably full of glory and of God.' That
morning, with its glorious visitation of grace, he never forgot. His
soul had new feelings; his heart throbbed with a new, a strange, a
divine joy. Peace reigned within and all around was lovely. The sun
seemed to shine more brightly, and the birds sang a sweeter song. The
flowers wore a more beautiful aspect, and the very grass seemed clothed
in a more vivid green. It was like a little heaven below. 'As I walked
along,' he says, 'I shouted, glory, glory, glory, and I am sure if a
number of sinners had heard me they would have thought me mad.'
But was he mad? Did not the pentecostal converts 'eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart, praising God?' Did not the converts in
Samaria 'make great joy in the city?' Did not the Ethiopian Eunuch,
having obtained salvation, '_go on his way rejoicing_?' And Charles
Wesley, four days after his conversion, thus expressed the joy he felt--
I rode on the sky so happy was I,
Nor envied Elijah his seat;
My soul mounted higher in a chariot of fire
As the moon was under my feet.
And surely God's people have as much right to give utterance to their
joy as the dupes of the devil have to give expression to theirs; and
though the religion of the Saviour requires us to surrender many
pleasures and endure peculiar sorrows, yet it is, supremely, the
religion of peace, joy, and overflowing gladness.
Mr. Ellerthorpe was never guilty of proclaiming with the trumpet tongue
of a Pharisee, either what he felt or did, and though he kept a
carefully written diary, extending over several volumes, and the reading
of which has been a great spiritual treat to the writer of this
book,--revealing, as it does, the secret of that intense earnestness,
unbending integrity, active benevolence, and readiness for every good
word and work by which our friend's religious career was
distinguished,--yet of that diary our space will permit us to make but
the briefest use. Take the following extracts:--
'January 1, 1852.--I, John Ellerthorpe, here in the presence of my God,
before whom I bow, covenant to live nearer to Him than I have done in
the year that has rolled into eternity.'
[Sidenote: HIS PIOUS RESOLUTIONS.]
Resolutions.
'1st. I will bow three times a day in secret.
2nd. I will attend all the means of grace I can.
3rd. I will visit what sick I can.
4th. I will speak ill of no man.
5th. I will hear nothing against any man, especially those who belong to
the same society.
6th. I will respect all men, especially Christians.
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