If you can’t get sailors to church, bring the church to the sailors.  That was the strategy used in 1844 by the Protestant Church Missionary Society for Seamen, which was renamed the Seamen’s Church Institute. As they celebrate their 175th anniversary, it is a good time to remember the Floating Chapels of the Seamen’s Church Institute.

The Floating Chapel of our Savior for Seamen was built on the hull of a ferry boat. Originally moored  at Whitehall Slip, it soon was moved to Pike Street on the East River in New York City.  Services were held there from 1844 to 1866 when the chapel was deemed unseaworthy and replaced with another. The second chapel remained at Pike Street until 1910 when it was moved to Staten Island and taken ashore to become the All Saints Episcopal Church where it remained in use until it burned down the day after Christmas in 1958.

In 1846, only two years after the construction of the Floating Chapel on Pike Street, the Floating Chapel of the Holy Comforter was built and moored at the end of Dey Street where it remained until 1868.

The Seamen’s Church Institute of Philadelphia built its own Floating Church in 1848, the Floating Church of the Redeemer, which was in use for roughly ten years.