The Floating Church of Our Saviour for Seamen, New York

This print depicts a Gothic Revival church building floating on the water (New York City's East River). The building's side with four large windows are prominently featured; the steeple (a "BETHEL" flag flies from its top) and main entrance are at the left. Near the church entry, three men (two with backs toward the viewer) stand at the railing of the narrow deck; at right, at the back of the church, another man also stands on deck. In the left background, a church steeple is surrounded by several smaller buildings. As the inscribed title and caption make clear, the floating church was built to serve seamen, who arrived in increasing numbers as New York was becoming the world's busiest port.

This Floating Church of Our Saviour was built upon the hull of a disused ferry boat; the text in the bottom margin provides the church's dimensions, and indicates the builder was Charles M. Simonson. Its steeple was reportedly seventy feet high. As the title also make clear, the church was commissioned by the Young Men's Church Missionary Society of New York, which was affiliated with the Episcopal Church, which solicited funds to cover the construction costs. It was consecrated on February 15, 1844. The following day, "The Evening Post" (a New York City newspaper) announced it was open "for worship." For a time, it was moored at Whitehall Slip (on the tip of Manhattan), then it was moved to Pike Street pier on the East River (near where the Manhattan Bridge is today). Publications of the day reported that congregations wished to eliminate the unease sailors might feel worshipping in churches on land in a strange city, and they wanted sailors ("sons of the sea"), when worshipping in floating church, to feel more at home. On Sunday mornings, more than 150 worshippers often assembled in the floating church's spacious interior (which also accommodated an organ).

After the chapel (shown in this print) burned down, it was replaced in 1866 by another church--also named The Floating Church of Our Saviour. The successor floating church continued to operate until 1910, when it was towed from Pike Street to dry land at Richmond Terrace on Staten Island, where it became All Saint's Episcopal Church. .