272 THE SEA. 



the river to save another while perspiring freely. It was winter, and the water icy 

 cold. Soon after a great dazzling seized him, followed by darkness. This occurred 

 again and again, until at last the darkness settled on him, and the light fled for ever. 



When Mr. Reade first saw him, the single public honour paid him was that he had 

 the right, with one Bailie Harvey, to pass over a certain suspension bridge gratis till 

 his death, while the rest of mankind paid a halfpenny ! His only pension was one 

 of three-and-sixpence a week from the Barony Parish, Glasgow. Mr. Readers efforts gained 

 him an annuity, which he unfortunately did not live long to enjoy. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

 THE HAVEN AT LAST HOME IN THE THAMES. 



The "Mighty Thames "Poor Jack Home Again -Provident Sailors The Belvedere Home and its Inmates A Ship Ashore 

 Rival Castaways Greenwich Pensioners The Present System Compared with the Old Freedom Outside the 

 Hospital The Observatory The Astronomer Royal Modern Belief in Astrology Site of Greenwich Park The 

 Telescopes and Observations The Clock which Sets the Time fo- all England Sad Reminiscences The Loss of the 

 Princess Alice Thz Old Dreadnour/htThe Largest Floating Hospital in the World The Trinity House : Its 

 Constitution, Purposes, and Uses Lighthouses and Light- vessels Its Masters. 



" Let the Rhine be blue and bright 

 In its path of liquid light, 

 Where the red grapes fling a beam 

 Of glory on the stream ; 

 Let the gorgeous beauty there 

 Mingle all that's rich and fair ; 

 Yet to me it ne'er could be 

 Like that river great and free, 



The Thames ! the mighty Thames !" 



THE poet's enthusiasm may be pardoned, for, although there are scores of rivers, considered 

 only as such alone, that outvie the Thames, regarding it in its relation to the sea aye, to 

 the whole world it stands pre-eminent and alone. To the sailor the Thames and the Mersey 

 have an interest and importance which belong to the streams of no other country. 



The reader has, in spirit, voyaged with poor Jack to the farthest corners of the earth ; he 

 has seen much of his life of peril and heroism ; he has noted that the hardships he endures 

 are often unrequited, and that, after a long career of usefulness and bravery, he may 

 lie on the shore " a sheer hulk," valueless to himself, possibly to die and rot in poverty and 

 distress. The charge of special improvidenca cannot nowadays be hurled at the sailor, as 

 it might have baen in days of old. Even Jack's improvidence was more excusable than the 

 same fault in any other class whatever. The fact is as such valuable institutions as the 

 Shipwrecked Mariners' Society have proved that there was a great desire' on the part of 

 seamen to help themselves. The fortieth annual report of the Society (1879) states that 



