The Hero of the Humber; Or, The History of the Late Mr. John EllerthorpeWoodcock, Henry
Religion
The Hero of the Humber; Or, The History of the Late Mr. John Ellerthorpe
Woodcock, Henry
Ellerthorpe, John, 1806-1868; Heroes -- England -- Biography; Sailors -- England -- Biography
under the circumstances:--I threw myself on my back and pushed the
drowning person on before me, and in this way I managed to keep them up
for a time, and with comparative ease to myself. I often said to persons
in a drowning state, "Now, hold fast by me, and don't exert yourself,
and I'll make you all right." It was not often I could persuade them to
act thus, but whenever they could, they got upon me; for "a drowning
person will catch at a straw." I believe I have fetched out of the water
not fewer than fifty drowning persons, and, with scarce an exception,
they tried to seize me, and thus rendered their deliverance a matter of
great difficulty. In fact, it would be comparatively easy to fetch a
drowning man out of water if he would just take hold of one's arm, and
thus keep himself from sinking, and let one tow him ashore.
[Sidenote: HE SEARCHES FOR THE DROWNING.]
'In many instances, as will be seen, I had to run a great distance, and
when almost out of breath, I have plunged into the water, and in that
state had to struggle with those on the point of drowning. I remember
that, on one occasion, when staying at a public house in America, the
landlord came running into the room, and cried out, "a man overboard." I
ran 200 yards, and on reaching the spot I was out of breath, when in I
plunged, but soon found I could not stay under the water for more than a
few seconds. The water was clear and fresh, with long grass at the
bottom; but alas! I could not find the young man, and he was drowned. I
arrived too late to be of any service, for it was found afterwards that
he had pulled himself on the bottom of the river with the long grass to
a distance of fifty yards from the spot where he fell in.
'My first object, after I had plunged into the water, was to catch a
sight of the drowning person, and if I could once do that, I always felt
confident I should soon have him in my grasp. It is a most difficult
thing to search for a drowning person, especially in muddy water. I had
to make this attempt again and again, and sometimes the fear has crept
over me that my exertions would be in vain, when I made the most
prodigious and exhausting efforts. And that I have never failed, in a
single instance, is to me a source of great gratitude to God, "in whose
hand my breath is, and whose are all my ways."'
[Sidenote: AN INSTANCE OF HIS PLUCK.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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