Phineas Stowe

Stowe, Phineas. (Milford, Connecticut, March 30, 1812--November 13, 1868, Somerville, Massachusetts). Baptist. Theological study, c.1831-1835. Pastorates at South Danvers, Mass., 1835-1837; Boston Mass., 1837-c.1857. Worked in Boston as a preacher to seamen. To aid him in his work, he published in 1849, a hymn book entitled Ocean Melodies, with the design, as he said, "to help seamen call up remembrances of home, and lead them to recognize God's power, and hear his voice in the storms that sweep over the deep." He found it difficult, however, to find in collections in use the hymns which he needed, and he not only solicited hymns adapted to the purpose which he had in view, but wrote a large number of hymns himself. Twenty-eight of his hymns are included in Ocean Melodies, and Seamen's Companion(1849), a collection of Hymns and Music, for the use of Bethels, Chaplains of the Navy, and private Devotion of Mariners, among them "The True Friend":

There is a Friend, who's always nigh
to those who on his word rely!

The first edition of Ocean Melodies was prepared by Dr. J.H. Hanaford in 1848. The eighth edition was published in 158. To aid him in his temperance work, Stowe compiled another hymn book, Temperance Meoldies.

--Alan Wingard, DNAH Archives