June 14: A Captain’s Rescues

During the 1950s, Captain George H. Grant, a skipper who saved 106 lives during his 50 years at sea, was awarded a gold medal for meritorious service.  His rescues included two men on a sinking fishing boat in the Gulf Stream, 17 sailors from a naval vessel that sank outside San Francisco harbor, and 83 survivors of a collision between a tanker and an ice breaker.

One of Captain Grant’s most remarkable rescues involved one of his own men—a sailor who fell overboard and was not missed until several hours later.  Upon learning what happened, the captain immediately turned his ship around and retraced the exact course.  The seaman was eventually found unharmed.

Few of us will go to sea and duplicate those kinds of rescues.  But each one of us, during our voyage through life, has countless opportunities to help our fellow men and women if we show a Christlike concern and alertness for those in distress.

They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters.  These have seen the works of the Lord.  (Psalm 106:23-24) 

Help me, Lord, to be ever on the lookout for those in trouble.