The Hero of the Humber

The Hero of the Humber, by
Henry Woodcock

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Title: The Hero of the Humber or the History of the Late Mr. John
Ellerthorpe
Author: Henry Woodcock
Release Date: February 6, 2007 [EBook #20520]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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OF THE HUMBER ***

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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.