SS Ville Du Havre - Notable Passengers

Notable Passengers

Rufus Wheeler Peckham, a judge and congressman from New York, was on board and lost his life. Travelling with his second wife, Mary, the couple were en route to southern France to improve his failing health. Peckham's last words were reported to be "Wife, we have to die, let us die bravely." His remains were never recovered, and his cenotaph (pictured) was erected at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York.

Also on the ship was young Princeton graduate Hamilton Murray, his sister Martha, and their friend Mrs C.A. Platt. All three were lost. The Hamilton Murray theater at Princeton (longtime home of Theatre Intime) is named in his honor.

Although Horatio Spafford was not a passenger on board Ville du Havre, his wife (Anna) and four daughters were. At the last moment Horatio was detained by real estate business, so Anna and the girls went on ahead for Paris. After the collision, a fellow survivor, Pastor Weiss, recalled Anna saying, "God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why". Anna was picked up unconscious, floating on a plank of wood, by the crew of the Loch Earn, which itself was in danger of sinking. Fortunately, the Tremountain, a cargo sailing vessel, arrived to save the survivors.

Nine days after the shipwreck Anna landed in Cardiff, Wales, and cabled Horatio, "Saved alone. What shall I do . . .". After receiving Anna's telegram, Horatio immediately left Chicago to bring his wife home. On the Atlantic crossing, the captain of his ship called Horatio to his cabin to tell him that they were passing over the spot where his four daughters had perished. He wrote to Rachel, his wife's half-sister, "On Thursday last we passed over the spot where she went down, in mid-ocean, the waters three miles deep. But I do not think of our dear ones there. They are safe, folded, the dear lambs". Horatio later wrote the famous hymn "It Is Well with My Soul", commemorating his daughters. Philip Bliss, who composed the music for the hymn, called his tune Ville du Havre, after the name of the stricken vessel.