There were a great number of clergymen on board who were returning from the meeting of the Alliance. The voyage began under the brightest auspices, but on the afternoon of Saturday, September 19, the ship encountered a terrible storm, which lasted for thirty-six hours, during which period little hope was entertained that the vessel could ever reach land. The captain himself wrote, “It is to Divine Providence alone that we are all indebted for our safety, for during my long experience at sea I never witnessed so severe a storm; and were it not for the good qualities of my noble ship, under the direction of God, she could not have weathered it.” When the danger had all passed, the captain said to one of the passengers, “Thrice on deck I thought destruction inevitable. Each time a sea of such magnitude and power came at the ship that I thought it was all over with us. But unexpectedly each broke just at the side of the ship. Sir, the hand of the Lord was in it.”
A narrative of the voyage, prepared by one of the passengers was afterwards published by Mr. Carter. The little book was entitled “God in the Storm.” During the storm, the passengers met more than once in the cabin for united prayer, although the condition of the ship was such that it was almost impossible to move about, and there were no meals served, “the stewards bringing such articles of food as were most convenient to those who felt any disposition to eat.” As soon as the danger was over, and the elements were sufficiently quiet, although “they were still tossed about like a feather in the wind,” on the morning of Tuesday, the 22d, the passengers assembled in the main saloon, “to offer thanksgivings to God for their preservation through the recent protracted storm.”
