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Article MASONIC ANECDOTES. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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Masonic Anecdotes.
time , if he went directly to Portsmouth , which he did , but the Victory had sailed . He said further , that a passage was ordered for him in a frigate , if he wished to go out to join Lord Nelson ; but he did not accept the offer , choosing rather to return to his native place , where he had left a wife . Had he been with Nelson at his death , it is more than probable that he would have been well rewarded ; but his tide was lost , and during he was leftwithout a pensionto his own
remany years , , sources . These at length were failing , and the old man ivould have been doomed , perhaps , to a parish poor-house , had his case not been represented to Sir Thomas Hardy , then a Lord of the Admiralty , by a very benevolent gentleman , P . N . Scott , Esq ., of Norwich , and Tom Allen was received as a pensioner of Greenwich Hospital , in 1831 . Here , by the help of a small situation , and occasional lifts from his old shipmates , he managed to rub along , and keep his wife tolerably
comfortable ; but on the 18 th of June , 1837 , Tom was appointed by his good friend , Sir Thomas Hardy , ( who in the mean time had been appointed Governor of the Hospital , ) to the situation of sculleryman , with a salary of sixty-five pounds per annum , and apartments , & c . This he continued to hold till his death , ivhich took place on the 24 th of November , 1838 . His death was supposed to have been caused by ossification of the heart , and he died after only two or three hours' illness , without pain . Though we may regret the departure ofthe good-natured honest Tom Allen , as men , as Christians we cannot but rejoice that his battles are all fought , and like poor Tom Bowline ' s—
" Although his body ' s under hatches , His soul is gone aloft . " The Governor has not suffered his kind remembrance of his old shipmate to pass away unrecorded ; for in the hospital cemetery , where poor Tom lies , he has ordered a neat tablet to be placed . —From the United Service Journal . October .
To THE EDITOR . —SIR , —Having on one occasion received very considerable benefit from having been a Member of Free and Accepted Masons , I think it right to make it knoivn to the world , if you think it worthy of insertion in your valuable publication ; but , as an old soldier , I must tell the story my own way . I was some years in the foot-guards , from which I was discharged in consequence of ill health , and was induced in 1831 to enter the service
ofthe Queen of Portugal , and in 1833 returned to England , and joined a ship just fitted out for the Portuguese service , as a non-commissioned officer of marines . We had on board a complement of 120 seamen , and 14 marines . When passing Dover , in consequence of some little misunderstanding between the captain and crew , the latter attempted to run the ship aground upon the sands , and , but for the prompt and determined spirit of the marines , the ship would- have been lost . They ,
however , succeeded ( with the most determined assistance of the officers of the ship ) in driving the whole crew below , with the exception of one very young man , who was at the helm at the time , and who remained there for twelve hours , aiding the captain in the most praiseworthy manner , the officers and marines working the ship all night ; and in the morning , after a proper concession from the crew , all was amicably arranged , and we sailed direct for Oporto , to join the fleet of Admiral Carlos de Pon ; 5 a ( Napier ) , where we arrived on the 19 th of June , 1833 , but he had sailed twelve hours previous . We , however , spent that night
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Anecdotes.
time , if he went directly to Portsmouth , which he did , but the Victory had sailed . He said further , that a passage was ordered for him in a frigate , if he wished to go out to join Lord Nelson ; but he did not accept the offer , choosing rather to return to his native place , where he had left a wife . Had he been with Nelson at his death , it is more than probable that he would have been well rewarded ; but his tide was lost , and during he was leftwithout a pensionto his own
remany years , , sources . These at length were failing , and the old man ivould have been doomed , perhaps , to a parish poor-house , had his case not been represented to Sir Thomas Hardy , then a Lord of the Admiralty , by a very benevolent gentleman , P . N . Scott , Esq ., of Norwich , and Tom Allen was received as a pensioner of Greenwich Hospital , in 1831 . Here , by the help of a small situation , and occasional lifts from his old shipmates , he managed to rub along , and keep his wife tolerably
comfortable ; but on the 18 th of June , 1837 , Tom was appointed by his good friend , Sir Thomas Hardy , ( who in the mean time had been appointed Governor of the Hospital , ) to the situation of sculleryman , with a salary of sixty-five pounds per annum , and apartments , & c . This he continued to hold till his death , ivhich took place on the 24 th of November , 1838 . His death was supposed to have been caused by ossification of the heart , and he died after only two or three hours' illness , without pain . Though we may regret the departure ofthe good-natured honest Tom Allen , as men , as Christians we cannot but rejoice that his battles are all fought , and like poor Tom Bowline ' s—
" Although his body ' s under hatches , His soul is gone aloft . " The Governor has not suffered his kind remembrance of his old shipmate to pass away unrecorded ; for in the hospital cemetery , where poor Tom lies , he has ordered a neat tablet to be placed . —From the United Service Journal . October .
To THE EDITOR . —SIR , —Having on one occasion received very considerable benefit from having been a Member of Free and Accepted Masons , I think it right to make it knoivn to the world , if you think it worthy of insertion in your valuable publication ; but , as an old soldier , I must tell the story my own way . I was some years in the foot-guards , from which I was discharged in consequence of ill health , and was induced in 1831 to enter the service
ofthe Queen of Portugal , and in 1833 returned to England , and joined a ship just fitted out for the Portuguese service , as a non-commissioned officer of marines . We had on board a complement of 120 seamen , and 14 marines . When passing Dover , in consequence of some little misunderstanding between the captain and crew , the latter attempted to run the ship aground upon the sands , and , but for the prompt and determined spirit of the marines , the ship would- have been lost . They ,
however , succeeded ( with the most determined assistance of the officers of the ship ) in driving the whole crew below , with the exception of one very young man , who was at the helm at the time , and who remained there for twelve hours , aiding the captain in the most praiseworthy manner , the officers and marines working the ship all night ; and in the morning , after a proper concession from the crew , all was amicably arranged , and we sailed direct for Oporto , to join the fleet of Admiral Carlos de Pon ; 5 a ( Napier ) , where we arrived on the 19 th of June , 1833 , but he had sailed twelve hours previous . We , however , spent that night