Church preserves maritime tradition Modelship deepens Oceanville group’s Christmas customs

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STONINGTON – Christmas is a time of traditions, religious and secular, that often are at odds with each other.

A small church in the village of Oceanville, however, has combined the two, and for more than a century has joined the village’s nautical history with the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

Since around the time of the Civil War, the Oceanville Baptist Church has displayed a 13-foot half-hull model of a three-masted sailing ship at the front corner of its sanctuary.

Although there have been times in its history when the model has been relegated to the balcony at the rear of the church and brought out only during the Christmas season, for at least the past 20 years it has had a permanent place at the front.

The origins of the tradition are cloudy, according to George Springer, a former pastor of the church and now head deacon.

“All the older folks who knew about its history have all passed away,” he said. “All we have is hearsay.”

There are several stories, apparently, about how the ship sailed into the church’s history.

One version, according to church clerk Mary Springer, involves the determination of the churchwomen to have a secular symbol of Christmas in the sanctuary.

“The womenfolk wanted to have a tree,” she said. “But the pastor told them that, according to Scripture, no fir trees were to be allowed in God’s house.”

She acknowledges that some Bible scholars have since searched in vain for such a reference, but at that time the pastor’s word was law. Not to be dissuaded, the women searched for a surrogate for a Christmas tree and settled on an item that was much in evidence in Oceanville at the time.

Oceanville was then a bustling coastal village, according to George Springer, with ships of all types sailing from its shores. The churchwomen also were aware that the Sea Coast Mission owned a similar boat that operated near the Bowery in New York City.

“They had a boat like this one, and they put presents on it for the sailors coming in,” Mary Springer said. “So the menfolk built the [model] boat and decorated it with fir tips.”

Another version comes from Mary Mixer, who said that, according to her family’s tradition, the ship was made by her grandfather and other local men.

“I’ve heard so many stories that I don’t really know,” Mixer said. “But what I’d heard was that a group of men were on a ship in a foreign country and they used a ship as a Christmas tree. When they returned home, they built another one here.”

Whichever version is the truth, the ship has served as a Christmas tree at the church ever since.

The half-model ship is a square-rigger, according to local historian Clayton Gross.

“I don’t know if it was rigged as a barque or a brigantine,” Gross said.

The model originally had sails, but those have long since rotted and been removed.

“As far as I know, it was not modeled after a specific ship,” he said. “It was a generic type of thing.”

The ship was named Zion, a reference to Mount Zion, the site of the ancient temple in Jerusalem and sometimes a reference to heaven.

According to Gross, a Christmas hymn whose first words were “Good ship Zion, hallelujah,” was sung at the time the ship was dedicated.

The model, set up on pews at the front of the church, towers over the congregation, dwarfing even the minister in the pulpit. Measuring about 13 feet from stern to bowsprit, the half-model is hollow, with sections in it that hold small items.

It once had been set parallel to the back wall, but now the ship is angled in the front corner of the church, the bowsprit crossing above the top of a new door that leads to the church’s new meeting room addition.

“We had too many tall people,” according to George Springer. “They kept hitting their heads. We were afraid they would break the bowsprit.”

With its permanent place at the front of the church, the ship model is more than a beloved relic of a bygone time. It has become a part of the church’s regular activities, Mary Springer said, and has been used as a setting for Sunday school lessons and during vacation Bible schools.

The fresh-cut fir boughs have been replaced by artificial greens, which along with the holiday lights and a small creche amidships are a permanent part of the ship. But the decorations surrounding it change – poinsettias and Christmas packages this time of year, jonquils and tulips in the spring, roses and carnations later in the summer, and colorful leaves in the fall. At Thanksgiving, the ship is filled with canned goods donated by congregation members for the local food pantry.

Gifts of mittens once decorated the masts of the vessel at Christmastime, but now, packages and goody bags surround the hull at the annual Christmas party which regularly attracts community members to swell the 12-member congregation.

Though small, the congregation has worked hard in recent years to keep up the old building, updating heating and electrical systems, painting the sanctuary, even building an addition that serves as a meeting room. Despite the improvements, there has been no thought of removing the ship.

“As people have aged, it’s become – I don’t want to say an icon – but it’s become so connected to our church that it would be missed terribly if it wasn’t there,” said Mary Springer. “It’s a tradition passed down from family to family.”

That tradition has become a link with the past, according to George Springer.

“It’s a reminder of those who have gone on before.”