Around New England
Maine State Legislator Credits God With Saving Him After Rogue Wave Flips Over Lobster Boat
September 19, 2023
A Maine state representative is thanking God for his unlikely escape from beneath a 40-foot lobster boat after a rogue wave flipped it over.
State Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) was approaching Winter Harbor along the northeast coast of Maine on Friday, September 15 in about 50 feet of water when a wave hit the boat “like a freight train,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“I have a snapshot in my brain of the wall of water towering over us,” Faulkingham wrote.
The boat “was turned upside down landing on top of us,” he wrote, referring to himself and another man on board at the time.
“My biggest fear is drowning,” he wrote. “I don’t know how deep I was but I just remember the sound of rushing water and looking to the light. It was almost like I was pulled or pushed to the surface. I didn’t even get a taste of salt water let alone a swallow. How? How was I not crushed or drowned?”
“…. Another thing,” he wrote. “This is not me, this is God too: I had no fear. I was completely at peace.”
His deckmate sustained a broken arm. But Faulkingham had no injuries. Both were quickly rescued.
Faulkingham is the minority leader in the Maine House of Representatives. He is also a lobsterman.
Of his experience, he wrote:
“God was with us. God is real, and we aren’t special people, but God is special. God is great, and he’s not looking for special people. There is power in faith. It’s my hope that someone will read my testimony and seek a relationship with God because he wants you to. Don’t worry about how, just do. If you need help finding a church to help you, reach out to me. It will be the greatest decision you ever made.”
