An interesting dressing-up of this straightforward folk-text came from Boston in Dadmun’s Melodeon in 1860, p. 102, where we read:
What vessel are you sailing in?
Pray tell me its name;
Our vessel is the ark of God,
And Christ our Captain’s name.
How old the American versions of the ‘Ship of Zion’ songs are I have not been able to learn. Newman I. White points to versions in the 1820’s (American Negro Folk-Songs, p. 94).
An early use of the same allegory in religious song is seen in the German folksong collection of Erk and Böhme, Deutschyer Liederhort, vol. iii., p. 628f. I find no melodic similarities between the German and the American songs; but the texts show remarkable parallels. To make this clear I shall cite a few of the German stanzas, comparing with them passages taken from various “ship” songs as sung by whites and blacks in America.
From a German manuscript of 1470-1480
Uf einem stillen wage
kumpt uns das schiffelin,