The following petition, signed by W. Hodge, Esq., Mayor, and upwards of sixty of the leading ministers, merchants, and gentlemen of Hull, was forwarded to the Royal Humane Society:—
To the Honourable the Court of the Royal Humane Society.
We, the undersigned, members of the municipal corporation, the Trinity House, and the Dock Company at Kingston-upon-Hull, and merchants of that borough, beg most respectfully to submit to the consideration of your honourable court, the services of John Ellerthorpe, now a foreman in the service of the Dock Company of this borough, who, during the course of the last forty years has, by the providence of God and his own intrepidity, rescued from a watery grave no fewer than twenty-eight persons, often at the great risk of his own life, as may be seen from the statement of particulars hereto annexed.
On a former occasion, on the 18th of January, 1836, you were pleased to award to Ellerthorpe a medallion and certificate on a representation being made to the society of his having saved eight persons from drowning while employed as a mariner in the New Holland Ferry.
Considering that the number of persons he has now saved amounts to twenty-eight, we take the liberty of bringing Ellerthorpe's further claims before your notice, believing that you will think with us that his further successful exertions in the cause of humanity, in saving so many persons from drowning, merit some additional mark of your approval.
We are,
Your honourable court's most obedient servants.
In response to this appeal the society awarded to our 'Hero' an especial vote of thanks, of which more anon.
The following appeal was made to Lord Palmerston:
Yarmouth and Rotterdam Steam Packet Office,
Kingston-upon-Hull,
30th August, 1861.
My Lord,—The enclosed documents relate to a series of, perhaps, unequalled acts of daring on the part of an inhabitant, a working man, of this borough, in rescuing persons from drowning. He has succeeded, at the repeated risk of his own life, in saving no fewer than twenty-nine persons from a watery grave.