ONCE IS ENOUGH.
When someone asked the first minister of our church at Ft. Defiance, Virginia, if he ever longed to take a trip back to his native Ireland for a visit his reply is said to have been a direct “No.”
And, for good reason, too.
It all happened in the 1700's, because John Craig arrived in the New World on his twenty-fifth birthday in 1734 after being on board ship sixty-seven days crossing the stormy North Atlantic. He, it seems, had no desire to duplicate that crossing.
He sailed from Larne Harbor, Ireland. We can assume that his, like most vessels making that trip in those years, was crowded after it made a stop on the south coast of Ireland for more passengers and for final supplies, they headed for America. Such passage was not exactly a pleasure cruise, at nest. We might well call their “ships” mere “boats” today and they were not designed or build for human comfort.
Contrary winds buffeted the ship about, it seems and storm high waves, kept passengers below deck most of the time. On one such rain-swept, wind-torn night John Craig, a young man of ambition going to the New World with ideas of possibly becoming a frontier doctor, decided to leave the hold and spend some time on deck.
On deck, he made sure of his foot and held fast to ropes there for the purpose. Covered from the flying spray with a taro wrapped around his round his shoulders he was fairly well covered. He felt the cold wash of wind-blown water on his face and hands, as he pondered on his fate. No doubt he wondered why he was where he happened to be at that moment, on the wet deck of storm-tossed ship bound for a world where all was new and promising.
For many year, he told noon of what happened in then next few minutes. He wrote about it that very night in his diary, but he next few women the next few moments.
He sensed a sudden quietness in the storm and leaned forward into the darkness toward the seas. At that instant, his hold on the hawser line lessened, a huge wave hit the ship and lifted him bodily up and away from the ship! He wrote later that he ,at once realized all was lost and gave himself willing into the loving arms of Providence. He choose to lie still upon the water and other caused a counter wave to tear away the huge wave on which he had been raised up and he felt himself dropped into a tumbled maze of ropes and other desk gear aboard his ship!
Recovered he made it below where he found warmth and he presence of fellow men and women. He dried his clothing as best he could; did not mention his on-deck experience to anyone, but, that very night, wrote a passage concern it in his diary which is extant to he read in our church museum to this day.
It is stance to see this Irish lad who was on his way to be a frontier doctor, a youth who taught school for several years , before he found himself and became a Presbyterian minister serving thousands of frontier men, women and children.
You can also understand why he might well have avoided any ocean voyages back to visit Ireland.
A.L.M. November 26, 2004 [c583wds]
