s
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