The Moravians Who Sang Through the Storm

On January 25, 1736, a violent storm tore across the Atlantic, splitting the mainsail of the ship Simmonds and sending waves crashing over the deck. Among the passengers was a young Anglican minister named John Wesley, gripped with terror, certain the vessel would sink. He later confessed in his journal that he was "unwilling to die." But in the lower deck, a small group of Moravian Christians — German refugees who had already lost homes and homeland — were singing hymns.…