In 1871, Louis Wagner was a mysterious loner, barely scratching out a living fishing the Maine and New Hampshire waters off the Isles of Shoals, when he had the good fortune to meet John Hontvet and his wife Maren. For two years John and Maren took a personal interest in seeing that Wagner was never in need of food or clothing, and hiring him to work on John’s prosperous fishing schooner, the Clara Bella. On the morning of March 6,1873, 147 years ago, the Hontvets discovered how their kindness was to be repaid.