Peace Be Still: A Ghost and Mrs. Muir story

A chapter from Captain Gregg's Log Book

The character of Daniel Gregg belongs to 20th Century Fox and David Gerber Productions. Saul, Sam and the ship Felicity belong to the author and may not be used without her permission.

Thanks to Susan for editing.

I have spent three days looking into the face of death, and have emerged, at last, victorious. The victory, though, was not my own. My men and I have to spend the next two days making the necessary repairs and tending to the wounded, but this is the first moment I have had for contemplation. Perhaps the salvation was in a way more frightening than the horror.

Let me explain. I had taken to the sea with a crew of able-bodied men, some of them new, some of them my dear friends. We had been to sea for thirty-one days when the first mishap came and it was a great one. It happened when Sam my cabin boy, behaving foolishly, fell over the railing. Saul jumped after him without hesitation and returned him to safety but did not fare so well himself. We dragged him aboard more dead than alive and had to take off his legs at the knee immediately. We all agreed it was a miracle he survived, although some thought it would be kinder to him if we had not labored over him so long but rather let him die. When Saul came out of his feverish trance and began to know what had happened, several of my men feared how he would take it. He took it admirably and as he became able he fashioned himself a small cart in which he could roll himself about the deck, and happily took over some of the menial tasks which only required use of the arms and hands. If possible he was even more jovial and hard-working than he was before the mishap. Only one thing troubled me, but I kept it to myself. He spent all his free time on the deck with his mother's Bible, reading.

It wasn't the reading that troubled me, for I am an educated man and encourage education in others. I believe my chief concern was that I abhorred the notion that all seaman were ignorant and superstitious, and in my mind I confused religion and superstition together. I had been schooled in the rudiments of religion by my Mother, and after that my Aunt, but I had also heard tales of ghost and mermaids from my father and, after that, the men I had served with and under and disbelieved them the same. Of course I did believe in God, or at least a god, for how else could I explain the wonders of nature? But it was a belief that stopped at the knowing. I never thought much about it except at moments when the sea was especially wild or beautiful, or perhaps when there was a splendid sunrise or some other breathtaking act of nature. Usually such thoughts were crowded out by the overwhelming demands and, yes I confess, pleasures of the day.

But seeing as how Saul was helped by his reading, I kept my thoughts to myself, and I kept the other men from harassing him about it in any way. I really need have not bothered however, for I found several of my men began to listen to him read from the book in the evenings when the duty was light. I confess I even found myself listening like a child in rapt attention, I had forgotten what good stories were contained in the pages of the Good Book. But that is what they were. Stories. Just like the ghost stories and mermaid stories I had heard as a youth. I ignored the yearning that rose up in certain times and dismissed it just as passing fancy, and I should be condemned for my childishness.

Time passed and there came upon us a quiet evening, too quiet, and I didn't like the look of it. There was not a breath of wind and the stars shone over head brightly. The moon was coming over the horizon and seemed larger than the ship itself. Its beauty astounded me and I found myself breathing a prayer to the God whom I had unwittingly come to know through Saul's readings. I do not know what I said, I do not believe it was actual words and it was not a petition. It was more like a desire to know this God, the one who had caused all this to be.

I did not have any more time to contemplate since at that very moment the entire sky opened up and the sea came alive. It was so sudden I was nearly knocked off my feet by the force of the wind, and only just managed to regain my footing before the next wave swept over the railing. The force was so great that those seamen slumbering below were awakened and we had no need to call for them.

The men worked feverishly to secure the ship, and the next three days became a blur. There were two things that stood out from that terrible three days, two things I will never forget. The first could have been my imagination, but I don't think it was. It was the middle of the second day and the storm had not relented for even a moment. It took all we had just to keep the ship from being broken like so much kindling. A large wave overtook me and I felt myself being swept across the deck and over the railing and I knew that the sea would claim me. Then I felt, as it were, a strong arm reaching out and holding onto me to prevent me from falling over. It held onto me long enough for me to regain my footing and stop gasping for breath. I continued to feel the support until I had once again reached a place of safety. I looked around for my benefactor and found no one. All my men were in their assigned places and working furiously.

I had no time to ponder but it passed through my mind that it was the hand of God who had saved me and steadied me. Although the storm continued to rage I felt refreshed and able to accomplish the task before me, where before I had felt I would not be able to. The second thing that stands out is Saul. He longed to come up on deck and assist but I could not allow it. He was quite able to help out on a fair day, but I would not risk his life or the lives of my other men by allowing him on deck during this storm. He stayed as close as he could and did what I did not know. I do know now what he was doing. The man was praying and believe his praying did as much good as the hard work from the others, and I also believe that he prayed as hard as the others worked.

The second day turned into a third and, if not for the special measure of energy I had received, I wonder if I would have lived. As it was, toward evening (although there was no morning and evening to be told from the skies) I once again began to falter somewhat and the storm seemed to be gaining in intensity. I looked up and all my men did likewise, for what we saw was a wall of water coming across the sea. It was larger than the ship and larger than even the tallest buildings I had seen in the largest cities I had been in. Time seemed to stop as we all watched it coming toward us. Nothing we could do now would save us and we all dropped our tools. Somehow I heard words, although I don't know how over the raging storm but they were very clear. I recognized a passage from the Bible and know now that it was Mark 4:39 "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm".

Immediately after I heard this, the storm stopped ... not slowly as storms will, but suddenly. There was not even a breath of wind and the sea immediately stopped churning, The clouds disappeared and the stars came out. I fell to my knees instantly and felt equal measures of awe, fear and gratitude; and made a fervent prayer of thanksgiving to God. When I rose to my feet I almost laughed while looking at the faces of men, but I imagine my own look much like theirs. Several of my men were kneeling in prayer. Some were making the signs of the cross. My first mate on this voyage, who thought himself to be the most manly of men, lay sprawled across the deck, having fainted. Sam was tending to him and was also white and shaken. I could not see one man of mine who was so calloused by the years at sea that he was not shaken by this.

After sufficient time had passed for the men to come to themselves, we took stock of the situation. There was a goodly amount of damage to both ship and man, but no one was lost to the storm; an unheard-of thing in a storm of this intensity.

This is the log of "the Felicity" Captain Daniel P Gregg.

Postscript

Although we were blown off course by the storm, we managed to arrive at our port on schedule and without any further incident. Even I was happy to be back on solid ground for a time. I would still not call myself religious, but I will never again consider the words from the Bible to be superstition.