The destruction of a dwelling, either by fire or by a tornado, and the inmates flying from threatened death, is a sad calamity; and the occurrence of such an event enlists the sympathies of all who hear of it. But sadder by far is the wreck of a ship at sea, or when cast away upon some remote or hostile shore.
Alas! how frequently it is true, that with the foundering ship, the breaking up of the sailor's home, his house, his refuge, his all, upon the deep, a number of the crew, and sometimes all on board, find a watery grave!
The sufferings incident, in many cases, to shipwrecked mariners, both upon the sea and upon the land, have furnished the most affecting themes of prose and poetry; and their recital uniformly touches an answering chord in every sensitive heart.
We feel that it is due to all classes of seamen, to whom we are so much indebted as the carriers of the products of all climes upon the world's great highway, and by whom we are provided both with the necessaries, and even luxuries, of life,—it is due to them, that their religious wants especially, should claim a share of our attention and interest.
The time was when this class of our fellowmen were thought but little of, and cared less about, in so far as it concerned their religious welfare; but with the progressive spirit of the age in which we now live, the lover of his country, the philanthropist and Christian, cherish a generous solicitude in their behalf. During the meetings of our religious anniversaries, there is no gathering, perhaps, that awakens more general interest than that pertaining to seamen. This fact, in connection with what is being done in the cause of seamen, both at home and abroad, is sufficient to prove that there is a growing, and, we trust, an increasing desire to promote the religious good of the sons of the ocean.
In seaport places, it would be natural to suppose that both the temporal and spiritual welfare of seamen would occupy a prominent place in the minds of the people generally. This is to some extent true. In such localities, especially, one discovers that the trains of thought, general conversation, domestic arrangements, family anxieties, prospects for years to come, all, or nearly all, are shaped and controlled by the leading idea of "business in great waters."
This presiding spirit, as it may be justly termed, pervades every department of life. We meet it at every turn, and are reminded, wherever we go, that we live in a seafaring community. We find this fact verified in public resorts for trade, in the family circle, in the prayer and conference meeting, in the sanctuary, in the chamber of sickness, in the house of mourning, and we read the memorials of it upon the tombstone in the silent repositories of the dead.
There is another feature to a seaport place, and especially to a whaling community, which it would be proper just to mention, and that is, the suddenness with which sad intelligence from absent friends falls upon the ears of those at home.
Many have had painful experience in these particulars. Wives, parents, and relatives have been as suddenly reminded of the decease of those near and dear to them, as would be the change of noonday into the darkness of midnight.
How many hearts have been made to bleed in anguish! how many earthly prospects, hitherto bright, have suddenly become shaded and overcast at such an announcement! Indeed, they shortly expected to hear that those abroad were in health and prosperity; or soon to embrace them on the homeward arrival of the ship; but alas! some mysterious contingency in providence supervened, and terminated their earthly voyage.