Nearer, My God, to Thee

“Nearer, My God, to Thee” is a 19th-century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, which retells the story of Jacob’s dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: “So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it…” The hymn is well known, among other uses, as the alleged last song the band on RMS Titanic played before the ship sank.  Also, the Hymn was sung by the sinking passengers on the Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania. It occurred  on  Friday, 7 May 1915 during the First World War, as Germany waged submarine warfare against the United Kingdom which had implemented a naval blockade of Germany. The bombing  by a German U-boat 11 miles (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland, killed 1,198 passengers and crew.  As I have told before, my Grandmother (Catharine Jones Owen) was waiting in Liverpool to board the Lusitania to come to the USA and to marry my Grandfather (Edward Telford Owen).  Both  of my Grandparents were originally from Wales.