The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
As New-York was the first maritime city that built a chapel expressly
for seamen, so it was the first to build a floating church, for
although there had been previously in London and Liverpool old hulks
fitted up as chapels, and moored in the docks for the use of sailors,
there had never been an actual church edifice put afloat before the
FLOATING CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR, which now lies moored at the foot of
Pike-street, in the East River. This novel edifice was finished and
consecrated in February, 1844. It is under the charge of the Young
Men's Church Missionary Society of the City of New-York, by whom it
was built, and has been under the pastoral care of the Rev. B. C. C.
Parker, of the Episcopal church, from its consecration to the present
time. It is seventy feet long, and thirty feet wide, and will
comfortably seat five hundred persons. It has an end gallery, in which
is an organ. A beautiful baptismal font of white marble, in the shape
of a capstan, surmounted by a seashell, chiselled from the same block
with the shaft--the gift of St. Mark's church in the Bowery,
New-York--stands in front of the chancel rail. The top of the
communion-table is a marble slab, and the Ten Commandments are placed
on the panels on each side in the recess over it. An anchor in gold,
painted on the back-ground between these panels, rests upon the Bible
and prayer-book. The roof, at the apex, is twenty-six feet high, and
eleven feet at the eaves. The edifice is built on a broad deck,
seventy-six by thirty-six feet, covering two boats of eighty tons
each, placed ten feet apart. The spire contains a bell, and the top of
the flag-staff is about seventy feet from the deck. Divine service is
regularly performed on Sundays, commencing in the morning at half-past
ten, and in the afternoon at three o'clock. Both the boats on which
the edifice rests are well coppered, and protected from injury by
booms placed around them.
[Illustration: THE FLOATING CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR.]
A similar floating church has been built and moored near
Rector-street, in the North River, near which is another floating
chapel, formed of an old hulk, after the manner of the first floating
chapels in London. In addition to these houses of worship for seamen,
there is a large and handsome church for sailors near the "Home," in
Cherry-street, under the charge of the Baptists, and a small seamen's
chapel in Brooklyn, near the Catharine Ferry. To complete this system
of benevolent enterprises for the benefit of sailors, there is a
Seaman's Savings Bank in Wall-street, a very handsome structure of
brown free-stone, in the third story of which are the offices of the
Seaman's Friend Society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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