This story is illustrated, about a ship, it's captain, it's shipwreck and his rescue. I believe the book was called "The Captain of The Promise" as this line was repeated near the beginning and at the end when the captain is rescued.

Storyline: Captain of a prestigious sailing ship undertakes voyage, huge storm overtakes, ship wrecks on small island and only the captain survives. He builds a life on this small island, it all goes up in huge flames, he laments "lost, lost! My promise is lost!", he awakens the next day to see a ship that stopped because of the flames to rescue him. I can hear my father's voice reading this book when I was a kid. Please find it. For some reason I can not.