Sailing, Sailing . . .
Today we are to spend the entire day onboard ship. From the port at Whittier, where we left last night at 9:00 p.m. to the port near Hoonah, Alaska, where we are to dock tomorrow morning, is 499 miles. I guess we don’t have time for stops!
I’ve never spent a whole day at sea. This will be a first.
I grew up hearing the song “Sailing” and it came to mind when I started writing about our plans for today. The chorus begins: “Sailing, sailing over the bounding main . . .”
Perhaps many of you are too young to have heard it. I found a YouTube video of a Micky Mouse singalong cartoon with the words printed at the bottom of the screen, if you are curious.
In their June 1969 issue of The Lookout, the Seaman’s Church Institute of New York published an article about the song which was popular at the time with both seamen and with schoolchildren. In those days before the Internet, the article’s author, Dorothy Trebilcock, had a hard time learning the history behind the song.
The New York City Public Library helped her by finding an obituary of the song’s author, James Frederick Swift, in an issue of a magazine called Musical Opinion, dated 1931. The obituary stated that that Swift died in Wallasey, England.
Trebilcock contacted the Wallasey library. A library employee told her that Swift was a composer who had begun playing the organ professionally at age 14 and continued until he was 80. That employee put an ad in the local newspaper, asking friends or relatives of Mr. Swift to get in touch with him.
Swift’s daughter, Miss Ruby Gertrude Swift, answered the advertisement. She was fascinated that someone was interested in her father, and an American at that! Miss Swift said that of the songs her father had written, “Sailing” was his favorite.
Now, one hundred and thirty-four years later, I’m thinking of words Miss Swift’s daddy wrote long ago. As mothers we have an opportunity each day to affect people yet unborn, the generations that began when our first baby was born.
I can only imagine the wonders God has planned for Ray and me to see today, wonders vastly different from the ones I usually see. Today it should be easy to realize that I am seeing wonders, but every day is filled with them. I just need to keep focus to recognize them.
O Lord, how many are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all;
The earth is full of Your possessions.
There is the sea, great and broad,
In which are swarms without number,
Animals both small and great.
There the ships move along,
And Leviathan, which You have formed to sport in it.
Psalm 104:24-26, NASB
This was my absolute favorite song when I was about four. I’d stand on top of the Little Tykes playset and sing it at the top of my lungs, steering my “ship” with the little wheel at the top. Thanks for the history and have fun glacier watching!