Horatio Spafford

Horatio Spafford lost almost everything in the great fire of Chicago in 1873; it was a financial disaster for him. After the fire, he decided to send his family to England, and so he put his wife and four children on the SS Ville de Havre. Deep in the Atlantic Ocean, the ship collided with another ship, the SS Lochearn. Over 200 people died in the accident, most by drowning . . . including Spafford's four children. When she got to England, Spafford's wife sent him a telegram with the words "Saved Alone." Spafford caught the next ship to England in order to be with her. The story goes that when the ship came to the point of the drowning, Spafford sat down and composed the following lines:

"When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
'It is well, it is well with my soul.'"