For Those in Peril on the Sea

The RNLI Lifeboat received its annual Blessing from Mark and Jenny outside the Parish Hall. The weather was perfect, and a good crowd of locals and visitors were in attendance.

One of the most well know hymns, often known as the "Navy Hymn" is Eternal Father, Strong to Save. It was a favourite of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, and played at the funerals of Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford and Reagan.

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

Hymnologist J.R. Watson points out the Trinitarian structure of the stanzas and the echoing of Psalm 107:23-30, beginning with “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep”

The original words were written as a poem in 1860 by William Whiting of Winchester, England, for a student who was about to sail for the United States. The melody, published in 1861, was composed by fellow Englishman, Rev. John Bacchus Dykes.

It was revised by the compilers of Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861), and again by Whiting in the "New Appendix to Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship" (S.P.C.K.l869); the final version was published in 1875. Dykes's "Melita" appeared in Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861).

William Whiting (1825-1878) was born in Kensington, England, and educated at Chapham and Winchester. Because of his musical ability, he became master of Winchester College Choristers' School. While best known for Eternal Father, Whiting also published two poetry collections: Rural Thoughts (1851) and Edgar Thorpe, or the Warfare of Life (1867). He died at Winchester. A memorial tablet in his honour was unveiled in the cloisters of Winchester College on Whitsunday 1938.

John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876) was born in Hull, England, and by age 10 was the assistant organist at St. John's Church, Hull, where his grandfather was vicar. He studied at Wakefield and St. Catherine's College, earning a B.A. in Classics in 1847. He cofounded the Cambridge University Musical Society. He was ordained as curate of Malton in 1847. For a short time, he was canon of Durham Cathedral, then precentor (1849-1862). In 1862 he became vicar of St. Oswald's, Durham. He published sermons and articles on religion but is best known for over 300 hymn tunes he composed. He died in Sussex at age 53.

And finally, here is a stanza from one of  Whiting's poems in Rural Thoughts, which was written many years earlier, but within which one can detect the kernel of his later poem.

In the prefix to Rural Thoughts, he noted that:

"It is not without great diffidence that the present volume is offered to the judgment of the world. The compositions of the Author's youth,—some of the poems having been written in his eighteenth year, —they possess many and great imperfections of which he can not but be aware. Nevertheless, in the hope that some kindred hearts may find in them a sympathy with their own feelings, and a response to their own sentiments, they are sent forth. In this hope, with all their defects and short-comings, they are given to the world, the spring blossoms of the Author's poetic tree ; trusting that the keen blast of criticism will blow lightly over them, and the no less fatal blight of contempt and oblivion forget them in its course."

From a poem entitled "Noon".

I love, upon a summer day, to roam
Along old ocean's pebbly strand, and dream
And commune with the ever-sounding waves.
There is a language in their ceaseless roar,
Suiting the endless pulses of the heart
That seeks in vain for rest. Alas ! fond thought,
The world of life is the mind's changeful wave,
Onward and onward rolling to the shore,
Dreaming of rest, and finding only when
The shore is gained, that rest begins with death.
There is no calm in life's wind-tossed sea,
Until the wind be lulled, until the wave
Finds its repose in death. Life throbs and beats
Against the storm that tears its feeble heart ;
And woe indeed, if in the end it find
No shore but angry rocks, no yielding sand
On which to sleep in peace, but breakers wild
Which lash its waves to fury ; then is death
No calm ; the storms of life with tenfold force
Assail the soul, and 'mid the endless rocks,
Storm tossed, in ending, cry to thee.