The Evangelist on the Titanic
“Women and children first” expresses a code of conduct prioritizing the protection of women and children in a life-threatening circumstance. It is primarily associated with the sinking of a ship when space in lifeboats is limited. When a British troop ship, the HMS Birkenhead, sank in 1852, this code was famously employed. From that incident came the name for which it is sometimes known — “the Birkenhead drill.”
This ethic is also memorably associated with the sinking of the Titanic. The “unsinkable” ocean liner struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic on the night of April 15, 1912, and went down in less than three hours. The captain ordered “Put the women and children in the lifeboats, and lower away!” 1500 passengers and crew died in the catastrophe, the overwhelming majority of whom were men.
While the story of the Titanic is one of disaster, it is also a story of great heroism and of great faith. Numbered among those who drowned in the tragedy was a Scottish Baptist evangelist named John Harper. Harper was traveling aboard the Titanic on its maiden voyage to America to fulfill a preaching engagement at Chicago’s Moody Memorial Church. After the liner struck the iceberg and began to sink, Harper, a widower, wrapped his six-year-old daughter, who was traveling with him, in a blanket. He then carried her up on deck and made certain she was placed safely in a lifeboat. Then he employed a unique approach to the Birkenhead drill. In addition to remaining on the doomed vessel himself, a survivor later recounted how Harper moved about the deck urging, “Women, children, and unsaved people into the lifeboats!” He also spoke with urgency to individuals still on the ship to turn in faith to Jesus Christ while they could. Upon hearing Harper’s appeal, one man replied that he had no interest in religion. Harper removed his life vest and gave it to the man who did not have one. “You need this more than I do.” It was John Harper who called upon the on-board orchestra to play the hymn, Nearer My God to Thee, as the ship gradually sank.
Four years after the sinking of the Titanic, a memorial service was held for survivors in Hamilton, Ontario. There, a young man named Aguilla Webb told a story that was later widely published in a gospel pamphlet entitled, “I was John Harper’s Last Convert.” While struggling for life in the frigid waters, Webb heard a voice calling out of the dark, “Is your soul saved?” “No,” he shouted back. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” came the reply. The appeal was heard several times in the succeeding minutes. Webb testified that in that hour of desperation he called on the Lord Jesus Christ to save his sinful soul. Of those not in lifeboats, only six others besides Webb were pulled from the deadly waters to survive. Webb insisted that his deliverance was providential. He was spared to tell the story of a heroic servant of God telling others of Jesus in the very hour of death.
Over the decades, several motion pictures about the sinking of the Titanic have been made. Unfortunately, none of them memorialize the faithful witness of John Harper. However, the Scottish evangelist is not forgotten. There is a room in the Moody Memorial Church named Harper Hall. In 1921, a church in Glasgow, Scotland adopted the name Harper Memorial Baptist Church. The church still exists, and still preaches the gospel. A few years ago, a surviving letter written by John Harper on Titanic stationery sold at auction to a collector for $50,000. But it was the letterhead rather than the writer and his signature that brought the high price.
The true memorial to John Harper’s heroics is his abiding testimony, and the souls he won to Christ. “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.” (Dan. 12:3)
David A. Oliver is the pastor of Ashley Baptist Church in Belding, MI.