"In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce, and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of sail, but were forced to hull, for divers days together. And in one of them, as they thus lay at hull, in a mighty storm, a lusty young man (called John Howland) coming upon some occasion above the gratings, was, with a seele of the ship thrown into the sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halyards, which hung overboard, and ran out at length; yet he held his hold (though he was sundry fathoms under water) till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boat hook and other means got into the ship again, and his life saved; and though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth."

According to a number of sources, famous descendants of John Howland include:

• Barbara Bush (U.S. First Lady)
• George Herbert Walker Bush (41st U.S. President)
• George W. Bush (43rd U.S. President)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (poet)
• Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (U.S. Senator)
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poet)
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (32nd U.S. President)
• Joseph Smith (founder, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

• John Howland's page on the website for the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts
• MayflowerHistory.com
• The Mayflower Society: General Society of Mayflower Descendants
• Sail 1620.org