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The Man & The Story Behind Amazing Grace (pt 3)

In 1744, the French fleet was hovering at England’s coast and war was imminent. John, a confused adolescent, was lost, lonely and on the loose. Due to his ‘thoughtless conduct’ the young seaman was press-ganged, on board HMS ‘Harwich’, at the Nore, a man-of-war.

By: Peter Rahme
Friday, 7 September 2007, 0:19 (EST)
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In 1744, the French fleet was hovering at England’s coast and war was imminent. John, a confused adolescent, was lost, lonely and on the loose. Due to his ‘thoughtless conduct’ the young seaman was press-ganged, on board HMS ‘Harwich’, at the Nore, a man-of-war.

The weight of navy life was too heavy for this frustrated teenager to carry. Unable to hold up under the strain of its rigid discipline and unwilling to handle the stresses of its daily routine, he eventually deserted ship. He was soon found, sent back, stripped and severely flogged. Filled with bitter rage and full of black despair, the defiant sailor, now a demoted midshipman was desperate to leave the navy altogether. His desire was for a less restricting way of life and more rewarding work and labour. To his surprise and absolute delight, after weeks of solitary confinement, he was discharged unexpectedly from the British Royal Navy and dispatched onto a slave trading ship at the island of Madeira. John wrote:

”…Upon inquiring, I was informed, that two men, from a Guinea ship, which lay near us, had entered on board the Harwich, and that the commodore, Sir George Pocock, had ordered the captain to send two others in their room. My heart instantly burned like fire. I begged the boat might be detained a few minutes: I ran to the lieutenant, and entreated him to intercede with the captain that I might be dismissed. Though I had been formally upon ill terms with these officers, and had disobliged them all in their turns, yet they had pitied my case, and were ready to serve me now. The Captain, who, when we were at Plymouth, had refused to exchange me at the request of Admiral Medley, was now easily prevailed on. In little more than half an hour from my being asleep in bed, I saw myself discharged, and safe on board another ship.” (Out of the Depths P.44)

Having abandoned his mother’s early religious instructions, and accepted the values of an aggressive atheist, John accumulated the vocabulary of a blatant blasphemer. The angry young man, which neither feared God nor considered others, had degenerated into a vile and vulgar character with a mean and miserable lifestyle.

However, the sun was not to rise on his better days, as he had hoped, until the darkness of bitter nights had come to pass. After he had enjoyed six months of freedom on the open sea, the twenty-year-old was to endure one long year of captivity in West Africa. This took place on Plantain Island, off the coast of Sierra Leone. There, his dream of work and wealth turned into a nightmare of sickness and starvation while he served a cold-hearted English master, and suffered at the cruel hands of his African mistress. He wrote,

“My new master... was much under the direction of a black woman, who lived with him as a wife. The woman, I know not for what reason, was strangely prejudiced against me from the first. What made it still worse for me was a severe illness which attacked me very soon, before I had opportunity to show what I could or would do in his service... I had sometimes not a little difficulty to procure a draught of cold water when burning with a fever. My bed was a mat spread upon a board or chest, and a log of wood was my pillow... My distress has been at times so great as to compel me to go by night and pull up roots in the plantation… These I have eaten raw upon the spot, for fear of discovery...” (Out of the Depths P.52-53)

‘Destitute of food and clothing’ and ‘depressed to a degree beyond wretchedness’, he wrote to his father seeking help and assistance. His father responded favourably and organized for a British merchant ship to bring his lost son home.

Meanwhile John’s situation improved slightly as he ‘obtained his master’s consent to live with another trader on the island’.

Then in February 1747, in a remarkable sovereign set of events, the commander of ‘the ship that had orders to bring him home’ rescued Newton from the island, ending his fifteen months of unforgettable captivity.

With the love of Christ
Peter Rahme

Pastor - Inner West Baptist Church
(Taken from the book - ‘The Man & The Story Behind Amazing Grace’. To order call (02) 9742 5716; or visit www.amazinggrace.org.au)


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