Joseph Bates’s Early Life

A brief review of his earlier life reveals that God in His providence was preparing Joseph Bates for an important work. The reforms he was led to make in his physical habits were no less marked than were the steps by which he was converted from “the ruinous habits of a common sailor”—to use his own words—to Christianity and to an effective ministry. These steps in reform were taken entirely as the deliberate action of his own judgment and reason, and when he was surrounded by unfavorable influences. Of this his biographer states:SHM 50.3

“It was during his seafaring life, while separated from the saving influences of the parental, Christian home, and exposed to the temptations of sailor life, [that Joseph Bates] became thoroughly impressed with moral and religious principles, and gathered strength to trample intemperance and all other forms of vice beneath his feet, and rise in the strength of right and of God to the position of a thorough reformer, a devoted Christian, and an efficient minister of the gospel.”—James White, The Early Life and Later Experience and Labors of Elder Joseph Bates, 16. Battle Creek, Michigan: 1878.SHM 51.1

Joseph Bates was born near New Bedford, Massachusetts, on July 7, 1792. His father was a merchant in that city. At this shipping center the lure of the sea proved irresistible to the lad and aroused in him an ardent desire to become a sailor. Hoping that Joseph might find the reality less pleasing than the dream, his parents gave their permission for him to accompany an uncle on a short trip by water to Boston. But the desired cure did not work, and at the age of fifteen he was permitted to ship as a cabin boy. Thus he entered upon his maritime career.SHM 51.2

On the return voyage from England he experienced the first of several hairbreadth escapes. Falling from a mast into the ocean, he barely succeeded in catching the end of a rope thrown to him from the fast-receding vessel. On the next trip to Europe the ship crashed an iceberg, and for a time all hope of escape was abandoned. With great difficulty, however, the vessel was brought to a port and was repaired sufficiently so that they could proceed to their destination.SHM 51.3