Seamen's Chapel of the Holy Comforter, for the Hudson River, New York

Starting in the 1830s, New York City ranked among the world's busiest seaports, with increasing numbers of American and international sailors arriving on its shores. A few organizations provided services for the seamen's physical and moral welfare. In 1834, the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey was founded. Several years later, that organization built the first floating church, the Church of Our Saviour, which was moored off Pike Street on the East River until it was destroyed by fire in1866. Its replacement, which was moored at several sites, operated from 1868 until 1910.

This rare print depicts the second floating church, the Chapel (or Church) of the Holy Comforter, which was built in 1846. It was moored on the Hudson River (then called North River), at the foot of Dey Street on the west side of Manhattan. In addition to offering regular church services, this church provided its parishioners with a reading room and a temperance society (as many seamen suffered from alcoholism). As this print shows, the structure resembled a large barn with tall windows beneath a pitched roof with a small belfry. In this image, a man walks up the gangplank (lower right), towards a group of people standing at the entry. In the lower central foreground, a man stands on the wharf opposite a man on the boat.

The image was probably delineated by Richard Upjohn, the architect who had just completed in 1846 his first important New York City commission, Trinity Church, which still stands on Broadway opposite Wall Street -- an outstanding example of the Gothic Revival style in America. While it is not specified if Upjohn also designed this floating chapel, his name appears on this print as part of the Protestant Episcopalian Committee who supervised its construction. In 1868, when this floating structure became too costly to maintain, it was abandoned.