Horatio Spafford (1828-1888), was a Presbyterian elder from Chicago. The famous evangelist Dwight L. Moody was a close friend of his. He was beset with many trials. At first his son died and then he lost his fortune in the great Chicago Fire of 1871. The worst however was yet to come. On (this day) 22nd November 1873 his wife and four daughters were sailing on board S.S. Ville du Havre when it was struck by an English ship named the Lochearn. Within a terrifying twelve minutes the vessel sank. Some survivors were rescued and later were landed at Cardiff, Wales. While Mrs. Spafford was among those survivors his daughters were not. She cabled her husband, ‘Saved alone.’

Horatio left immediately to join his wife and he passed the vicinity where the tragedy was believed to have taken place. Of the place he wrote, “we passed over the spot where she went down, in mid-ocean, the waters three miles deep. But I do not think of our dear ones there. They are safe, folded, the dear lambs.”

Crossing the ocean he penned the famous words.