EPHRAIM HOWE and an AMAZING SHIPWRECK SURVIVAL

I’ve always had a fascination with learning about my ancestors and have been incredibly lucky that different relatives have shared that fascination.  Recently I re-discovered a record of my maternal grandmother’s ancestors dating back to the 1400’s.  Along with that I found a story about Ephraim Howe, the father of my maternal great-great grandmother+ who lived in the 1600’s.

According to the book THE LIGHT and THE GLORY, “On September 10, 1676, Ephraim Howe, his two sons and three other men, set sail from Boston for New Haven.  Contrary winds and a storm blew them far out into the Atlantic and held them captive.  Their exposure to the elements was lethal and with little in the way of victuals aboard, one by one they began to die.”

The book went on to say, “First, Ephraim lost his two sons, as had his biblical namesake before him.  But the storm raged on, finally driving them ashore on a desolate island near Cape Sable (Nova Scotia).  The other men died after a few weeks, because there was nothing to eat but an occasional fish, or gulls which they could shoot (they had rescued some gunpowder).  Ephraim survived alone.”

Ephraim occasionally saw fishing vessels, but none of them came near him. Month after month went by and he was still not rescued.  According to the story, he prayed often and confessed his sins and “cried out to God for his deliverance.”  Eventually he praised God for saving him and “set apart a day for solemn thanksgiving unto God, his gracious preserver, for the divine favors which had been intermixed with all his troubles.”  Not long after this, “a vessel belonging to Salem did pass by that island, and seeing this poor servant of God there, they took him in.  And so he arrived in Salem, July 18, 1677.”  It had been nearly a year since the day he departed.  How fortunate and blessed he must have felt, but the loss of his sons was no doubt devastating.  I wonder how his life changed after that and what he told his family about their experience. They must have felt that he would never return.  I don’t know how long he lived after that, but his daughter Sarah lived to be nearly 90. What unexpected twists and turns our lives have and how fragile and intertwined they are.  I remind myself of that frequently.