I had at least a couple of ancestors that had close calls -- one had the ship go down but survived (his sister didn't), the other (much earlier) fell overboard during the trip across the Atlantic. Whew, that was close.
One of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Lynch, Jr., of South Carolina, was “lost at sea” near the end of 1779. He was attempting to sail to France for his health. He was only 30 years old (the second-youngest of the Signers).