Did you know: Stories of faith at sea

[ABOVE: Vegard Ottervig (photographer), Olav Tryggvason, Trondheim, June 10, 2012—[CC-BY-SA 3.0] Wikimedia Commons]

FISHERS OF MEN

A 2,000-year-old fishing boat found in 1986 on the shore of the Sea of Galilee first appeared when a drought made the lake’s waters recede. Nicknamed the “Jesus Boat,” there’s no proof it was used by Jesus Christ, but it shows what boats from his time really looked like.

In the years after Jesus’s earthly ministry, the apostle Paul began his own missionary travels—an estimated 5,000 miles of which took place by sea. These maritime journeys, part of a total estimated travel distance exceeding 10,000 miles, spanned the Mediterranean Sea and included significant journeys to Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy.

A SEVERE SALVATION

Olaf Tryggvason (c. 960–1000), a Norwegian noble and unstoppable pirate raider, ravaged the coasts of Europe and England in the tenth century. A hermit’s fulfilled prophecy, however, led to Tryggvason being baptized as a Christian and brokering peace with King Ethelred II (d. 1016) of the Anglo-Saxons. After this, Tryggvason brought Christianity with him when he sailed home to Norway to defeat his father’s murderer, Earl Hakon. Following Hakon’s defeat Tryggvason was crowned king and charged Norway’s pagan lords with an ultimatum: be Christian or die. He eventually died as he had lived—in a spectacular sea battle against pagan kings.

Today Tryggvason’s seafaring Christianity still colors Northern European culture. Across Nordic countries churches suspend detailed ship models, called votive ships, from their ceilings as symbols of maritime heritage, faith, and thanksgiving. Often donated by sailors or shipbuilders, these models represent gratitude for surviving shipwrecks, prayers for safe voyages, or memorials to those lost at sea.

THE SANCTIFIED SEA

Christian liturgy, architecture, and imagination have long held ties to the sea. For instance the word “nave” comes from the Latin navis, meaning “ship.” It’s fitting because the nave is the church’s main “people space,” carrying the congregation together through worship—much like a ship carrying its passengers. Architecturally it runs from the main (usually west) entrance toward the chancel, and in churches with side aisles, the term technically refers only to the central aisle. In everyday use, though, “nave” often means all the space for worshipers, distinct from areas reserved for the choir and clergy.

The “father of modern oceanography,” Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873), said he was inspired by Scripture—especially Psalm 8:8’s “paths of the seas”—to study ocean currents. His classic 1855 work The Physical Geography of the Sea helped reveal “the wonders of the great deep.”

SKY PILOTS

Many preachers saw reaching sailors with the gospel as an important mission field. William Wilberforce (1759–1873) agreed, joining the Naval and Military Bible Society, a mission founded in 1779 to print Scripture for those at sea. By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, sailor preachers were sometimes called “sky pilots” because they were metaphorically seen as pilots guiding souls toward heaven.

SUNKEN SHIPS AND SEA HYMNS

We have shared many stories of Christian witness through shipwreck and sea disaster in CH. Here are a few; you’ll read more of them in this issue.

■ The apostle Paul’s journeys included several shipwrecks. Acts 27–28 records one that Christians still commemorate (see pp. 28-30). The Collegiate Parish Church of St. Paul’s Shipwreck, also known as simply the Church of St. Paul’s Shipwreck, is a Roman Catholic parish church in Valletta, Malta. It is one of Valletta’s oldest churches.

■ Alexander Duff (1806–1878), a Scottish missionary to India, first felt his need for salvation when he nearly died by drowning. After being called to the mission field in 1829, he also survived a narrow escape from pirates and two shipwrecks before finally landing in Calcutta with nothing but a Bible and a psalm book.

■ A business interruption kept Horatio Spafford (1828–1888), an American lawyer, from joining his wife, Anna, and four daughters on the steamship Ville du Havre’s voyage to England. As friends of the famous evangelist D. L. Moody (1837–1899), the Spaffords had planned to cross the Atlantic to hear Moody preach. On November 22, 1873, another vessel struck the Ville du Havre, killing over 200 people. All four of Spafford’s daughters died; Anna sent a heart-wrenching telegram home to confirm: “Saved alone.” Horatio quickly boarded another ship to reunite with Anna. As they passed the place where the Ville du Havre sank, he began penning the words to the enduring and well-loved hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul.” The first verse reads:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

■ Half a century later, hymns featured at another disastrous shipwreck. As the RMS Titanic sank on the night of April 14–15, 1912, the ship’s band reportedly played hymns to calm passengers. “Nearer, My God, to Thee” is traditionally named as their final piece. CH