Hymns:
Poems, Quotes & Other Writings:
- There Is No Death [Henry Jackson van Dyke]
- The Ship That Sails [Anonymous]
- The Sound of the Sea [Longfellow]
- Ballad of the Tempest [Fields]
- The Winds of Fate [Wilcox]
- Morning Song [Teasdale]
- from The Sea and the Wind That Blows [E.B. White]
- Quote from L. Francis Herreshoff
- Quote from Joel White
- Quote from Richard Bode
- from Sterling Hayden's autobiography, "Wanderer"
Prayers:
- Prayer at the burial of the dead at sea (1789)
- Prayer to be used in [all Ships in] storms at sea (1789)
Eternal Father, Strong to Save . . .
This hymn is known today as the Navy Hymn since it is present practice (and has been since 1879) to conclude each Sunday's Divine Services at the United States Naval Academy with the singing of the first verse of this hymn. The hymn is a musical benediction that long has had a special appeal to seafaring men, particularly in the American Navy and the Royal Navies of the British Commonwealth and which, in more recent years, has become a part of French naval tradition. The words to this hymn were written as a poem in 1860 by William Whiting of Winchester, England for a student who was about to sail for the United States. The melody, published in 1861, was composed by fellow englishman, Rev. John Bacchus Dykes, an Episcopalian clergyman.
This hymn is often used at funerals for personnel who served in or were associated with the Navy. Eternal Father was the favorite hymn of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was sung at his funeral at Hyde Park, New York in April 1945. Roosevelt had served as Secretary of the Navy. This hymn was also played as President John F. Kennedy's body was carried up the steps of the capitol to lie in state.
You will find that most versions of this hymn vary by only a few words. The following version is as it appears in the Methodist collection of hymns published in 1876 and as it is typically sung today:
Eternal Father! strong to save,
Whose arm doth bind the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep:
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea!O Savior! whose almighty word
The winds and waves submissive heard,
Who walkedst on the foaming deep,
And calm amid its rage didst sleep:
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea!O Sacred Spirit! who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
Who bad'st its angry tumult cease,
And gavest light and life and peace:
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea!O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
And ever let there rise to thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
Three different MP3 renditions of the hymn:Sung by the U.S. Navy Band's Sea Chanters [964KB]
[Note: Eternal Father, Strong to Save has been sung in many recent and popular movies including Titanic, Crimson Tide and The Perfect Storm.]
William Whiting [born Nov. 1, 1825; died May 3, 1878] --
Whiting was educated in Chapham and at King Alfred’s College, Winchester. Because of his musical ability, he became master of Winchester College Choristers’ School in 1842, and worked in that capacity for 36 years. He wrote volumes of poetry, and contributed hymns to other collections. His works include Rural Thoughts and Scenes (1851) and Edgar Thorpe, or the Warfare of Life (1867)
Rev. John Bacchus Dykes [born March 10, 1823; died January 22, 1876] --
At age 12, Dykes became assistant organist at St. John’s Church in Hull, where his grandfather was vicar. He studied at Wakefield and St. Catherine’s Hall in Cambridge, where he was a Dikes Scholar, President of the Cambridge University Musical Society, and earned a BA in Classics. In 1848, he became curate at Malton, Yorkshire. For a short time, he was canon of Durham Cathedral, then precentor (1849-1862). In 1862 he became vicar of St. Oswald’s, Durham (he named a son John St. Oswald Dykes, and one of his tunes St. Oswald).
Dykes published sermons and articles on religion, but is best known for composing over 300 hymn tunes. In his music, as in his ecclesiastical work, he was less dogmatic than many of his contemporaries about the theological controversies of the day—he often fulfilled requests for tunes for non-Anglican hymns. In addition to his gift for writing music, he played the organ, piano, violin, and horn.
I am standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she is a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, "There! She's gone!" Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living weight to her destined harbor.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, There! She's gone! there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "There she comes!"
And that is dying.
-- Henry Jackson van Dyke
[Adapted from 'A Parable of Immortality' by Henry Jackson van Dyke. It is reported that the last four words were added by an unknown source.
Born November 10, 1852, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and educated in theology at Brooklyn Polytechnic, Princeton, and Berlin, Henry Jackson van Dyke worked twenty years as a minister, first in Newport, Rhode Island, from 1879 to 1883 and next in New York until 1899. His Christmas sermons, his essays, and his short stories made him a popular writer. His poems reveal a classical education as well as a common touch in matters of faith. He became Professor of English Literature at Princeton in 1900. In 1907, he wrote the still popular hymn Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (set to Hymn of Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony). During World War I he acted as American Minister to the Netherlands (1913-16) and then naval chaplain, for which he was awarded the Legion of Honor. He chaired the committee that compiled the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship in 1905, and helped prepare the revised in edition in 1932. He died April 10, 1933.]
The Ship That Sails
I'd rather be the ship that sails
And rides the billows wild and free;
Than to be the ship that always fails
To leave its port and go to sea.
I'd rather feel the sting of strife,
Where gales are born and tempests roar;
Than settle down to useless life
And rot in dry dock on the shore.
I'd rather fight some mighty wave
With honor in supreme command;
And fill at last a well-earned grave,
Than die in ease upon the sand.
I'd rather drive where sea storms blow,
And be the ship that always failed
To make the ports where it would go,
Than be the ship that never sailed.
-- Anonymous
The Sound Of The Sea
- The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
- And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
- I heard the first wave of the rising tide
- Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
- A voice out of the silence of the deep,
- A sound mysteriously multiplied
- As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
- Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
- So comes to us at times, from the unknown
- And inaccessible solitudes of being,
- The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
- Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing
- Of things beyond our reason or control.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Ballad Of The Tempest
We were crowded in the cabin,
Not a soul would dare to sleep--
It was midnight on the waters,
And a storm was on the deep.'Tis a fearful thing in winter
To be shattered by the blast,
And to hear the rattling trumpet
Thunder, "Cut away the mast!"So we shudddered there in silence,--
For the stoutest held his breath,
While the hungry sea was roaring
And the breakers talked with death.As thus we sat in darkness
Each one busy with his prayers,
"We are lost!" the captain shouted,
As he staggered down the stairs.But his little daughter whispered,
As she took his icy hand,
"Isn't God upon the ocean,
Just the same as on the land?"Then we kissed the little maiden,
And we spake in better cheer,
And we anchored safe in harbor
When the morn was shining clear.-- James T. Fields
James Thomas Fields (1817-1881) was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He served as editor of the Atlantic Monthly from 1861 to 1870. He authored several books and at least two volumes of poetry. "Ballad of the Tempest" is his best known poem.
One ship drives east and another drives west,
With the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
That tell them the way to go.Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate,
As we voyage along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul
That decides its goal
And not the calm or the strife.-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) was born in Johnstown Center, Wisconsin. Living most of her life in New York City, she was one of the best-selling poets in the late 1800s.
A diamond of a morning
Waked me an hour too soon;
Dawn had taken in the stars
And left the faint white moon.O white moon, you are lonely,
It is the same with me,
But we have the world to roam over,
Only the lonely are free.-- Sara Teasdale
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She lived in seclusion in her later years until her suicide in 1933. Sara is one of my favorite poets and although this short poem doesn't have a direct link to the sea or sailing, her theme will be easily understood and appreciated by offshore sailors. "Wisdom" is another of her poems that I highly recommend.
from The Sea and the Wind That Blows
During his seventies, E.B. White wrote an essay about sailing for Ford Times, called "The Sea and the Wind That Blows." In this extract he describes the mystery and allure of a boat.
"If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble. If it happens to be an auxiliary cruising boat, it is without question the most compact and ingenious arrangement for living ever devised by the restless mind of man--a home that is stable without being stationary, shaped less like a box than like a fish or a girl, and in which the homeowner can remove his daily affairs as far from shore as he has the nerve to take them, close hauled or running free--parlor, bedroom, and bath, suspended and alive."
E.B. White may be best known for his children's books: Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan and Stewart Little (of recent movie fame). He also co-authored with William Strunk, the very popular (even today) Elements of Style. More importantly to we sailors, E.B. White loved sailing. He passed this love to his son, Joel White, a well-respected boat builder and designer who died in 1997. Joel designed the W-Class yacht Wild Horses which was launched in 1998.
To read about Joel, his boatbuilding and his father's impact on his life, I highly recommend A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time written by Douglas Whynott (©1999).
A Quote from L. Francis Herreshoff
"Sailing is a wonderful and unique thing, and the sensation of being noiselessly and smoothly propelled without cost of fuel is one of the most satisfactory pleasures known, but when you add to this the fact that the sailboat itself is one of the most interesting things which God has let man make--well, then you get a combination which is almost sacred."
"Perhaps the first Wanderer will slip into Center Harbor at sunset. The owners, friendly folk, will invite me aboard, and sitting below at the cabin table, I will look around and it will all be just as I imagine it--the feeling of space and comfort, soft highlights glinting off the varnished trim, the combination of aromas that emanate from the interior of a choice wooden vessel--cedar, teak, and tar, supper and rum, and the accumulated wind and sunshine of a good day's run."
"For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar with the breeze."
-- from First You Have to Row a Little Boat
from Sterling Hayden's book "Wanderer"
To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen, who play with their boats at sea - "cruising," it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
"I've always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?
First published in 1963, Sterling Hayden's autobiography, Wanderer, tells of his romantic adventures at sea. Hayden was born Sterling Relyea Walter on March 26, 1916, in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. At an early age, he'd ride the trolley from his mother's apartment in Cambridge to the Boston waterfront; he had an obsession with ships. Later on he signed on to fishing vessels for no pay. He eventually captained a ship to Tahiti and worked for the Kaiser Wilhelm on his 160-foot schooner. He was discovered by Hollywood in 1938 while participating in the fisherman's race in Gloucester. He is most well known as an actor whose career spanned 40 years. He appeared in over 60 films, starring as General Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove and as Roger Wade in the The Long Goodbye. He also had a cameo role as the crooked Irish cop in The Godfather. His life interest was sailing and he wrote two books about life at sea, "Wanderer" and "Voyage." He died of cancer in 1986.
Prayer at the Burial of the Dead at Sea
"We therefore commit his body to the deep, looking for the general Resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ; at whose second coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the sea shall give up her dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself."
[Note: The tradition of burial at sea is an ancient one. As far as anyone knows this has been a practice as long as people have gone to sea. In earlier times, the body was sewn into a weighted shroud, usually sailcloth. The body was then sent over the side, usually with an appropriate religious ceremony. Many burials at sea took place as recently as World War II when naval forces operated at sea for weeks, and months at a time. Since World War II many U.S. service members, veterans, and family members have chosen to be buried at sea. The prayer above was likely used by both British and U.S. ships in the 1800's]
Prayer to be used in [all Ships in] storms at sea
"O most glorious and gracious Lord God, who dwellest in heaven, but beholdest all things below; Look down, we beseech thee, and hear us, calling out of the depth of misery, and out of the jaws of this death, which is now ready to swallow us up: Save, Lord, or else we perish. The living, the living shall praise thee. O send thy word of command to rebuke the raging winds and the roaring sea; that we, being delivered from this distress, may live to serve thee, and to glorify thy Name all the days of our life. Hear, Lord, and save us, for the infinite merits of our blessed Saviour, thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
[as found in the 1789 Book of Common Prayer. The Book of Common Prayer is one of the major works of English literature. Since its introduction in the mid-1500's it has exerted enormous influence on the religious and literary lives of all who speak the English language. The Book of Common Prayer has gone through a number of editions, not only in England where it originated, but in all the places where the various Churches of the Anglican communion are now active.]
© 1998-2003 by
Mark T. Melchior -- All Rights Reserved - Revised:
20 Dec 2007 16:28:40 -0500
"In a powerboat,
you get there in a hurry . . . in a sailboat, you are already there."