Titanic's Angel of Mercy 
The Reverend John Harper Story*

Where was God when Titanic went down? For some aboard the sinking ship, He was nowhere to be found. He was there for many others, providing a spiritual lifeboat throughout the ordeal. And for others still, He appeared in the form of a servant sent to lead them to Jesus and life everlasting.

God's servant aboard Titanic was second class passenger Reverend John Harper, a Baptist minister born May 29, 1872, to a solid Christian family in Houston Renfrewshire, Scotland. As his young life unfolded, he was consumed by the word of God, and, by age 17, he was preaching the gospel on the streets of his village. A few years later, his calling led him to London, England, where his giant passion for the salvation of others became the defining mission of his ministry.

Empowered with courage and compassion, he started his own church in September of 1896-now known as the Harper Memorial Baptist Church in Glasgow. His congregation grew dramatically over the next 13 years. He married during this time but was widowed shortly after God blessed their union with a beautiful baby girl.

Her name was Annie Jessie Harper but Reverend Harper called her "Nina." She was six years old when she boarded Titanic in Southampton with her father and his sister-in-law, Miss Jessie Wills Leitch. They were on their way to Chicago where Harper was scheduled to conduct a series of revival meetings.

On the evening of April 14, 1912, Reverend Harper was on deck admiring the sunset. "It will be beautiful in the morning," he remarked as the RMS Titanic sailed swiftly through the bitterly cold Atlantic. At 11:40 p.m., the promise of a beautiful morning was dashed when an iceberg scraped the ship's starboard side, ripping open six watertight compartments. 

According to reports, John Harper rushed his daughter to lifeboat 11, kissed her goodbye and handed her over to Aunt Jessie, promising they would see him again someday. Flares that lit the dark sky were reflected in the tears on his face as he backed away into a crowd of desperate souls. Only minutes later, Titanic literally broke in half, plunging 1,498 people into the dark, frigid waters. John Harper was one of them.

Survivors later recalled seeing the reverend swimming through the 28- degree water, trying to lead the doomed to Christ. One young man testified a stranger swam up to him and asked, "Are you saved?" When "No" was his reply, the stranger tossed him his life jacket and said, "Here then; you need this more than I do," and swam away to others. Because of the intense cold, he had grown too weak to swim. His last words before slipping under: "Believe in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."

Following the disaster, a nameless survivor wrote about the stranger who urged him to call out to Jesus for his soul's safety: "Then and there, with two miles of water beneath me, in my desperation I cried to Christ to save me." Of the 1,498 people who went into the water that night, only six were rescued. One of them was this young man. 

The survivor later claimed the stranger, who prayed for the eternal welfare of others, was the Reverend John Harper, Titanic's Angel of Mercy.

* One of 2,208 stories of passengers and crew, from the
Titanic Museum Attraction's historic archives in Branson, Missouri.