The Mullers set off for the United States in August of 1877 aboard the 4,000 ton ship the Sardinain. For some reason they had been allocated the chief officer’s deck room for their cabin, which Susannah [his wife] found to be ’tolerably comfortable’.
Although the Atlantic was rough, the ship remained on schedule until running into thick fog off Newfoundland. Captain Dutton had been on the bridge for twenty-four hours when George Muller appeared at his side.
‘Captain, I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon.’
‘It is impossible,’ said the captain.
‘Very well,’ said Muller, ‘if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way – I have never broken an engagement in fifty-two years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray.’
Captain Dutton wonder which lunatic asylum Muller had escaped from.
‘Mr. Muller,’ he said, ‘do you know how dense this fog is?’
‘No, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life.’
Muller then knelt down and prayed simply. When he had finished the captain was about to pray, but Muller put his hand on his his shoulder.
‘Do not pray. First, you don’t believe He will answer; and second, I believe He has and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.’
Captain Dutton looked at Muller in amazement.
‘Captain,’ Muller continued, ‘I have know my Lord for fifty-two years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.’
The captain walked across to the door and open it. The fog had lifted.
Captain Dutton retold the story many times during many times as master of the Sardinian; a well-known nineteenth century evangelist subsequently described him as ‘one of the most devoted men I ever knew.’
