c. 1997 RELIGION News Service
NEWARK, N.J. _ The Rev. Charles McTague, former chaplain at Port Newark, and a merchant seaman before he took his vows, has a personal story of what he considers to be a possible miraculous intercession by Pierre Toussaint.
In 1973, Newark Archbishop Thomas A. Boland assigned him to serve on the Voice of Peace, a 40-year-old, 500-ton rusty Dutch coaster converted by peace advocate Abby Nathan into a 50,000-watt radio ship. The ship’s mission was to patrol the Mediterranean waters off Israel and Egypt broadcasting messages of peace.
“Four hours out of New York, we ran into a terrible storm with hurricane winds and waves 50 feet high,” said McTague. “It was the same storm that sank two large Norwegian ships and an ocean-going McAllister tug, with the total loss of 60 lives.”
When a hole opened in the ship’s hull, and the pitching vessel began to take on water, the captain ordered the hole stuffed with rags and sealed with cement from a bag that had been mysteriously delivered to the ship just before sailing. It had not been ordered.
“The storm lasted six days and six nights,” recalled McTague. “When a helmsman became sick, the captain ordered me to take his place at the wheel and keep the ship heading into the wind. The seas were mountainous. Our only sextant was smashed on deck and we lost our position. I think the devil was trying to sink us.”
On the sixth night, the priest directed a steward to go to his cabin, remove a canister from his desk drawer and empty its contents over the side. The canister contained earth from Toussaint’s grave, which McTague had hoped to deliver to the ex-slave’s ancestral West African homeland.
“The storm didn’t stop, but a few minutes later I saw a pinpoint of light,” said McTague. “No one else could make it out until binoculars were used. It turned out to be St. David’s Light at St. Georges in Bermuda. We headed in for the safety of the harbor. We could not have lasted another day at sea.”
MJP END RNS
