MR. ELLERTHORPE’S GENERAL CHARACTER, DEATH, ETC.

In physical stature, Mr. Ellerthorpe was about five feet seven inches high, and weighed about ten stones. His build was somewhat slender for a sailor. He stood erect. His countenance was hard and ruddy, and indicated long exposure to weather. His ordinary expression was indicative of kindness, blended with great firmness. When spinning his yarns, or describing his exploits, his eye kindled, and his face, lit up with smiles, was expressive of intense sympathy.

To his wife (who has just followed him to the skies, July, 1880,) he proved himself a kind and provident husband, i.e. houseband, as Trench renders the word. Even during his wicked and drunken career he never forgot his matrimonial vow, to ‘love, honour, and cherish’ the partner of his life; and hence, he never but once took any portion of his regular wages to spend in drink, and the sum he then took was about fifteen shillings.

Of fourteen children, but four survive their parents, two sons and two daughters. The father strove hard to give them what is beyond all price a good education. His eldest son, (who has long been on the Metropolitan newspaper staff,) when a boy displayed a strong instinctive love of learning, and when, on one occasion, his father urged him to devote less time to his books, and to form the companionship of a a certain youth, he replied, ’No. He spends as much money in cigars as would buy a library, and consumes as much time in smoking them as would enable him to learn half a dozen dead languages.’

Mr. Ellerthorpe proved himself a good servant, discharging his duties faithfully and honourably. During fourteen years he occupied the responsible position of foreman of the Humber Dock Gates, Hull. And when it is borne in mind that Hull is the third port in the kingdom, and that it is annually visited by 30,000 seamen in connection with its foreign and coasting traffic, and that, in the same time, about 20,000 small vessels, connected with the inland navigation, enter and leave the port, it will be seen that the duties of our friend were numerous and important. But the force and transparency of his character, his undoubted honesty, his indefatigable industry, and his unwearied attention to the duties of his office, won for him the confidence and respect of his employers, the esteem of his fellow workers, and the good opinion of the merchants of the port. Dale Brown, Esq., says:

Dock Office, Hull,
Septh, 1867.

Sir, I have known Mr. John Ellerthorpe as an active, energetic,
Christian man, for upwards of eighteen years, and during the past
six years he has been under my immediate control.

His wonderful daring and success in saving the lives of drowning persons, have now become matters of history, and have been fully recognised by the late Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, the Royal Humane Society, and the local officials in Hull, by whom he is best known and valued.

I am, Sir, yours very obediently,
DALE BROWN, Supt. Dock Master.
Rev. Henry Woodcock.

The following appeared in the Hull newspapers, November the 9th, 1864.

’Presentation to the ’Hero of the Humber.’ On the 6th of November, 1861, a public presentation of a gold watch and a purse containing upwards of 100 guineas, was made to Mr. John Ellerthorpe, of Hull, known thenceforth as the ‘Hero of the Humber,’ on account of his having saved twenty-nine persons from drowning. To commemorate that interesting event, as well as to add another to Mr. Ellerthorpe’s well earned honours, a few friends met last Evening at Mr. Rawlinson’s, ‘Sykes Head,’ Wellington Street. After a well-served supper, Mr. Councillor Symons, who, in the absence of Mr. Alderman Fountain, presided, called upon Mr. John Corbitt (of the Air and Calder Company), who presented to Mr. Ellerthorpe a purse containing twenty-three and a half guineas, subscribed by the leading shipping firms of Hull.

’Mr. Corbitt said: The subscription was proposed by Mr. W. Dyson, sen. (Bannister, Dyson, & Co.), and has been most warmly and heartily taken up by all the leading firms, who were most ready and forward to mark their sense of the obligations of the shipping interest to Mr. Ellerthorpes assiduous attention to duty, obliging disposition, and untiring activity at his post night and day (Applause). All present knew how valuable those services were, and how much the dispatch of business depended upon them. It had been a pleasing duty to himself to receive the subscriptions, they were tendered in such a willing and hearty spirit (Cheers). Mr. Corbitt then presented to Mr. Ellerthorpe the purse, which contained the following inscription:

THIS PURSE,
CONTAINING 23-1/2 Guineas,
Subscribed by Trading Merchants of Hull,
Was presented by Mr. J. Corbitt to
MR. JOHN ELLERTHORPE,

For his unwearied zeal and attention to the requirements of the
Trade of the Port by Penning Vessels in and out of the Humber Dock.

Noth, 1864.

’Mr. Ellerthorpe suitably acknowledged the presentation, and thanked Mr. Corbitt and the subscribers for their kindness. As for himself, he had certainly striven to secure the interests of the port, but he had only done his duty, as he hoped he ever should be able to do, without the prospect of any such reward as that. It, however, gave him unfeigned pleasure to find that anything he had done could be so highly appreciated. He hoped to live to advance the interests of the town and of commerce. Several loyal and complimentary toasts followed, and the proceedings throughout were of a most pleasant and agreeable character.’

To the eye of a stranger, our friend’s cheerful countenance and erect form, during the last few years of his life, indicated a robust state of health, giving the promise of a green old age. Such, however, was not the case. His employment as Foreman of the Humber Dock Gates, was very arduous, exposing him to all kinds of weather, day and night, according to the tides, and he found it telling seriously upon his health. His frequent plunges into the water, in storm and in calm, at midnight as well as at midday, in times of chilling frost as well as in times of warmth, sometimes top-coated and booted, and at other times undressed, also helped to sap his naturally strong frame.

In a private note he remarked, ’It is with difficulty I can talk, at times, and my breathing is so bad, that I am now unable to address the Band of Hope children. The other night, and after I had been in bed about three hours, I was seized with an attack of shortness of breath which lasted four hours, and I thought I should have died in the struggle. But it pleased the Lord to restore me, and since then I have felt a little better. I now suffer greatly from excitement, and need to be kept still and quiet, but my present situation does not allow me much quiet. In fact, I am afraid, at times, that I shall be forced to leave it, for I think, and so does Dr. Gibson, that the watching, night after night, let the weather be as it may, is too much for me. But I leave myself in the hands of God, knowing that he will never leave me nor forsake me.’

Dr. Gibson, his medical attendant, wrote the writer thus:

Hull, 26th Sept., 1867.

Dear Sir, I received your letter this morning, respecting John Ellerthorpe, a man well known for many years past, and greatly esteemed by the people of Hull, on account of his great daring, and humane and gallant conduct in saving such a large number of human lives from drowning.

As his medical attendant, I regret to say, that his frequent plunges into the water, at all seasons of the year, and long exposure in wet clothes, have seriously injured his health and constitution.

After the ‘Hero’s’ death the same gentleman wrote: ’Mr. Ellerthorpe had generously attempted to save the lives of others at the expense of abridging his own life.’

Mr. Ellerthorpe knew the great source of religious strength and salvation, and trusting entirely in the merits of Jesus Christ, he found a satisfying sense of God’s saving presence and power to the very last. He would often say, ’my feet are on the Rock of Ages. I cannot sink under such a prop, as bears the world and all things up.’ His affliction, water on the chest, and an enlargement of the heart brought on by his frequent plunges into the water, and exposure to wet and cold, was protracted and very severe. He found great difficulty in breathing and had comparatively little rest, day or night, for five months. Dr. Gibson said to him on one occasion, ’Mr. Ellerthorpe, you cannot live long unless I could take out your present heart and give you a new one.’ ‘Ah,’ said he, with the utmost composure, ‘that you cannot do.’ Often after a night of restlessness and suffering he would say to his dear wife: ’Well, I have lived another night,’ to which she would reply, ’O yes, and I hope you will live many more yet.’ ‘No,’ he would say, ’I shall not live many more; I feel I am going, but it is all right.’

During his last illness he had, as was to be expected, many visitors, but he loved those best who talked most about Jesus. He seemed pained and disappointed when the conversation was about the things of earth, but he was delighted and carried away when it was about the things of heaven. When his medical adviser gave strict orders that visitors should not be allowed to see him, his pale face and lack-lustre eyes grew bright, and he imploringly said, ’Do let those come who can pray and talk about Jesus and heaven.’

The ministers of his own denomination, the Revs. G. Lamb, T. Ratcliffe, T. Newsome, J. Hodgson, F. Rudd and others often visited him, and would have done so much more frequently, but for the nature of his complaint and the orders of his medical attendant. Mr. John Sissons, his first class leader, Mr. Harrison, his devoted companion and fellow labourer in the work of God, and others of his lay brethren, frequently visited him, and all testify to the happy state of soul in which they found him. The Rev. J. Hodgson, in one of his visits, found him in great pain, but breathing out his soul to God in short ejaculatory prayers. His old passion for the conversion of souls was strong in death. Mr. Hodgson told him of some good missionary meetings they had just been holding. And how many souls had you saved? was the ready inquiry. You will soon be at home, said Mr. Harrison, during his last visit, to which he replied, Yes, I shall, my lad. During the Rev. T. Newsomes visit Mr. Ellerthorpe expressed himself as wonderfully happy and anxiously waiting the coming of his Lord. Topladys well known verse was repeated by the preacher:

’And when I’m to die,
To Jesus I’ll cry;
For Jesus hath loved me,
I cannot tell why;
But this I can find,
We two are so joined,
He’ll not reign in glory
And leave me behind.’

‘Ah,’ said the dying man, now rich in holiness and ready for the skies, ‘THAT IS IT.’ He soon afterwards expired in the full triumph of faith, on July 15th, 1868.