The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-04-09
Turned Down the Mayfower.

guild of pilots and master mariners.
at Deptford stroud, in the County or
Kent.
Turned Down the Mayhower.
Early in the seventeenth century.
Trinity House, as the corporation was
styled, was intrusted with the respon-
sibility OF surveying shipping, buiIt.
hired or purchased by the government.
and in 1913 a vessel named the Nay
flower" was offered for sale TO the
government, but was rejected as unfit
for public service by direction and on
the report of the Brethren OF 1rin!tS.
House. 1t was this very ship that was
thus turned down by Trinity House
that subsequently brought the Pill
grim Fathers 10 this country The
headquarters of Trinity House are Sit
uated on Tower Hill. near the Tower
of London. and were built at the end OF
tho eighteenth century, from designs
by Wyatt, being the third home OF tns
brethren, the first house where samuel
Pepys of Diary fame. also brother.
was wont TO have his Offices, having
been destroyed by the great fire OF
London. in 1866.
There are, In addition to the regular
brethren. who are conlposed exclusive
ly of officers OF the Royal Navy and
teen honorary members. invariably
great d!gnitaries of the state, Thus
the first Duke Of Wellington was elect
ed a brother of Trinity House after
most famous premier. Billy Pitt, was
likewise brother. So too were Lord
Palmerston, W. r. Gladstone and
Lord Beaconsded, while Lord Rose
berry. Arthur Baltour and Pre-
mier Asquith. all of them seem to pre-
fer the naval uniform of Brother OF
Trinity to any other at court and Of
fetal functions.
Sir Ernest Shackleton is now engaged
on lecture tour in America 1t Is with
no mercenary object in view; nor Is
he seeking to turn his successes In con-
pecuniary account for his own person.
al benefit. When he undertook his
last voyage of exploration he had to
bear the entire brunt of raising the
100000. OF this. 100000 was fur
nished outright by himself and his
wife, and by their relatives. The re-
mainder was advanced by London
who had confidence in his star. When
he returned, after having reached the
magnetic South Pole. and having at
tanned point a hundred miles distant
British government. in token of it's
admiration. authorized a grant from
the treasury of 100000. This left him
with still 100000 to repay to tho
on the guarantors. Part Of this sum
he has already raised by lectures in
the United Kingdom. and on the Con-
tinent Of Europe. 1t is with the OBJ
iect OF raising the remainder, amount
ing to some $4,000. that he is now
lecturing in America.
/ Not that Sir Ernest is in any way Sc
riously Impoverished, but inasmuch
as he Is bringing out at his own ex-
pense the costly reports OF his eXpedi-
ton. he naturally feels that II is not
altogether fair to subject his wife and
children to the additional burden of
repaying the bank for what has been.
after all, the most brilliant, popular,
and unuuestioned piece of polar eX-
ploration on record. Sir Ernest is, in
one word. ecturing here for much the
same reason as the late George Will
liam Curtis and Mark Twain, that is
to say, with the highly honorable and
admirable aim OF paying off their in
debtedness to people who had conflded
in them, with this difference: that the
debts OF Curtis and Twain were in
CURED in connection with publishing
ventures for their own personal bone
iit. which failed; whereas Sir Ernest's
obligations We're incurred In polar en-
ploration for the benefit of the civliz-
ed and scientific world, and which sue
ceeded
Copyright. 1910, by the Brentwood
Company