John Howland was my 12th Great-Grandfather.
The Mayflower almost lost a passenger when John Howland went up on deck during heavy weather. As the ship rolled to one side, Howland slipped into the sea. Though he was powerless to resist the waves, the topsail halyard, which happened to be trailing in the water, happened to come into his hand, which he happened to close at the right moment. He held it as he sank what seemed to him several fathoms. The crew hauled him to the surface and used a boat hook or something to bring him up to the deck. Bradford described him as “something ill with it,” as anyone might be after being snatched back from sure death. But he got over it. It may be a good thing he did. Within his cold, wet breeches he carried the genetic roots of the forty-first and forty-third presidents of the United States, George H.W. Bush and his son. Howland was also an ancestor of Edith Roosevelt, wife of President Theodore Roosevelt. This information is taken from "Thanksgiving: The Pilgrims First Year" by Glenn Alan Cheney.