went and sat down on the paddle-box and
placed a boat hook at my side, to be ready should any one fall into the
water. I had not sat many moments when I saw a youth, about seventeen
years of age, fall overboard. I jumped from the paddle-box on to the
dock wall, and ran as fast as I could to the spot. While the fire was
blazing before me I could see the boy distinctly, but when I got past
the fire it was pitchy dark, and I lost all trace of the drowning youth.
Thousands of people were thronging and shouting in every direction, and
I lost all hopes of saving the youth, who was now submerged in the
water. But when I could not get any further, for the press of the
people, I threw in the boat hook; it was eighteen feet long and the tide
was very high. I knelt with one knee on the wall, and felt the boy at
about fifteen feet under water. The hook caught the bottom of his
waistcort, and I felt him take hold of it with both his hands. I never
could ascertain the boy's name, but the whole case was fully reported in
the local newspapers at the time, and hundreds, yea, thousands of people
now in Hull, well remember it. Witnessed by thousands.

_Thirty-sixth._--GEORGE PEPPER.* (1852.)

George was the son of my shipmate, who witnessed the whole affair. He
was a scholar in the Trinity House school, but it being Easter Monday,
he had a holiday, and came to spend the afternoon on board, with his
father. The packet started suddenly, and the rope by which she had been
fastened to the pier, struck the boy, and overboard he went. The packet
was in motion, but I leaped into the water, while George's father went
to fetch a boat hook, but it is my opinion the boy would have been
drowned had I waited for the hook. The boy's father was a good swimmer,
but he has often told me that he always wanted to think a few moments
before he durst leap into the water. However, I saved his son in a few
moments, and without much difficulty; indeed, when his mother said to
him, 'George, what did you think when you was in the water?' he replied,
'O, mother, I hadn't time to think, for Mr. Ellerthorpe caught me
directly.' Next morning, George was ready for school and I was ready for
my work, and scarcely any one knew aught of the affair. The fact was,
both Pepper and myself were to blame in not warning the boy of the
danger that had nearly cost him his life. George is now a young man, and
sails, I believe, from the port of Hull, and he seems to think as much