Lead Thou Me On

Lead Thou Me On tells the compelling story of one of Titanic's most unsung heroines. Britain's Lady Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes was one of the 325 first class passengers to board the luxury ocean liner on April 10, 1912. Four nights into the voyage, infamous disaster struck when The White Star's flagship collided with an iceberg in the Atlantic, sending all aboard into panic. The few lifeboats Titanic carried were frantically dispatched from the top deck amid the mass hysteria of frightened passengers of all classes. With a massive gash in the side of her hull from the iceberg, the celebrated show ship began to take on the Atlantic's frigid water and sink deeper and deeper under the enveloping sea's surface. White Star Line staffers gave women and children priority in the frenzied loading of lifeboats. Able Seaman Thomas William "Tom" Jones was given charge of lifeboat number eight as it was filled to half capacity with a few more than thirty passengers. Tom needed a second seaman to steer the lifeboat's tiller, and Britain's Countess of Rothes with her pearls and fur coat under her life jacket was chosen for the arduous job. The hymn "Lead Thou Me On" became much more than lyrics that night, as the Countess relied on God to see fellow survivors to safety. Beyond the doomed voyage of Titanic, Lady Noël had a fascinating and Christ-honoring life that is being told for the first time through full-length biography.