The Gospel Ship

The Gospel Ship - Click link or image for Prints cards and much more

Private Collection - © Peter N Millward

The Gospel Ship is now republished from an original Chomolithograph print circa 1880s - 1900s.  The designer HY. P - Henry Pickering  (1858–1941) was a well known Christian publisher and Journalist. And made an ingenious way to apply scripture and Bible texts into a maritime theme. Research so far shows three very similar versions. One other similar picture had been designed about the same time and mentioned in an article in the Herts Advertiser 29th January 1887.  Title "Homeward Bound" designed by WCM - William Charles Miles, journalist and designer of the Gospel Compass and Gospel Target.  It is not known if any examples of WCMs "Homeward Bound still exist...but if any visitors know of any examples, please contact me.  It is not known if Henry Pickering designed other pictures, but one other design is similar - The Gospel Lifeboat, is a similar idea with Biblical texts and scriptures.  

The story behind the allegory

Early Gospel Ship Publications

The idea of the Gospel as a ship carrying believers to safety predates the illustrated print. Several nineteenth-century publications use the same theme, although a direct connection between these individual works and Pickering's illustration has not been established.

The Gospel Ship - an early booklet

Toronto Public Library's Digital Archive lists a small religious booklet, The Gospel Ship, with the date 1855, in its collection of early children's books. The title page identifies a Birmingham printing for J. Groom, Broad Street, and the Bazaar, Soho Square, London.

It tells of the City of Destruction, the voyage to Immanuel's Land, and Christ as Captain. This is an early witness to the allegory, not proof that this particular booklet supplied the inspiration for the later chromolithograph.

The Gospel Ship: Her Voyage to the Better Country - Rev. J. Harvey

A separate book bearing this title was written by the Rev. J. Harvey. It is listed in The Publishers' Circular of 1 October 1890, among the publications of James B. Knapp's Primitive Methodist Book Depôt, London. This establishes that the book existed by 1890; its original publication year is still uncertain.

 EMIGRANTS.

Emigrants for Emmanuel’s land should lose no time in having their berths secured, as ONLY ONE vessel can ever succeed in reaching that country.

Vessel’s name — Gospel ShipRomans 1:16

Port which it leaves — City of Destruction2 Peter 3:10

Bound for — Emmanuel’s landHebrews 11:16

Time of Sailing — To dayHebrews 3:7–8

The Fare — Without money, and without priceIsaiah 55:1

Captain’s name — Jesus ChristHebrews 2:10

Crew — Workers together2 Corinthians 6:1

Passengers — Sinners saved by graceRomans 5:1–2

Sea, over which it passes — TimeRevelation 10:6

Lighthouse — The Holy ScripturesPsalm 119:105

Compass — TruthJohn 8:32

Sails — Faith and Love2 Thessalonians 1:3

Wind — The Holy SpiritJohn 6:63

Storage — GraceIsaiah 55:2; 2 Corinthians 12:9

Anchor — HopeHebrews 6:19

Passengers are supplied with everything on the voyage. Philippians 4:19 — “My God shall supply all your need,” etc.

The vessel affords ample accommodation. Luke 14:22 — “and yet there is room.”

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For further reflection.......

 A vision of a Gospel ship on dry land was seen by many during the Hebridean Revival...

"Another night, as we left, we saw in the open field, a ship, as if it was a navy ship, all lit up, all lit up between the masts and everything. But we knew it wasn't real...... for it was on dry land, it was on dry land. We couldn't, we couldn't say a word. None of us could even speak. "Be still, and know that I am God" That's all that we could say."  Donald John Smith. (Eyewitness)

Alistair Petrie commenting on the Hebridean Revival and vision of a Gospel ship...."Where they see His profound divinity coming as a Gospel ship which a whole lot of them saw at one point,  and they all saw this ship which has been seen only a very few times in history so I'm told."  

  The above qoutes from video from The Sentinel Group 

                                        The Hebrides Revival: A Retrospective 

In October, 2007, George Otis, Jr., along with son, Brook, and a small team, returned to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Their purpose was to meet people who had experienced the extraordinary revivals that occurred there in the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and early '50s. 

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Also an article written in 1872

Vision of a Bible Ship  

The following article was found among the papers of the late A.W. Pollok, B. A., who graduated from Dalhousie College in April 1872, and was drowned at Port Hawkesbury in August of the same year.

"As I lay musing a vision passed before me of a noble ship. She was built in the New Jerusalem, and her builder and maker was God. Her timbers were of the strong oaks of Zion, her masts of the tree of Calvary, and her rigging of the cords of love, her cable of the three-fold cords of faith, hope, and love, which could not easily be broken. Her helm glittered like the star of prophecy. Her anchor was from Immanuel's land. Her figure-head was the emblem of righteousness, and her name was the Word of God. From stem to stem, from deck to keel, she was a goodly ship. Her deck was the broad platform on which Christians stand. Her guns thundered forth the terrors of the law, but her mission was emphatically peace. 'Her weapons were not carnal, but spiritual, mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.' Her painting was beauty. She was streaked with white, and sprinkled with blood. Her ship's crew were the Apostles and Prophets. Her captain the Prince of Peace. Her cargo was truth, and her broad banner love, the inscription 'Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will to men.' She sailed over a tempestuous ocean. The billows of hell drove furiously over her bows, but her bulwarks were impregnable. She carried no boats for her safety, because she never could go down. Her progress was onward, wafted by the breezes of the Eternal. She sailed from the port of heaven, and her destination was to the habitable parts of the globe, and her mission to the ends of the earth. The nations hailed her approach with joy. She scattered blessings in her course, and returned homeward bound, freighted with living souls, and anchored under the throne of God and the Lamb.

*Chromolithograph printing is a method of printing superseded by Offset printing in the 1930s.  Even though it was an old method of printing - Chromolithographic prints are highly regarded. 

To find out more about Chromolithograph printing, please visit  the link here