Pilgrim Overboard...

John Howland about 1599-1673

I am related through marriage to this young man who came to America on the Mayflower and fell overboard during a storm and was almost lost at sea but luckily for his millions of descendants living today  (including Presidents George Bush and George W Bush,and Mrs Theodore Roosevelt and Fanny Miles Smith the wife of my great grand uncle William Proudfoot Craig Begg )  he managed to grab hold of the topsail halyards, giving the crew enough time to rescue him with a boathook.

He was present when the Mayflower contract was signed aboard the Mayflower in 1620.

So interesting to read about the ancestors of my great grand aunt.

 Mayflower