Ships at Sea by Rev. Raymond Parnell

The story of Noah and the ark is intriguing. God was the designer of the huge vessel and Noah constructed it. At that time no one had a boat or canoe, much less a ship. It had never even rained! People lived on earth and had no inkling of boarding a huge ship containing three stories. It was to house 8 righteous people, and a pair of all animals upon earth (seven pairs of "clean" animals — sheep, cattle, goats, doves, etc.). After the flood's devvastation the people of God would replenish the earth, and animals would likewise live.

The ship of Noah did its job and we are living testimonies!

Another exciting ship story concerns a preacher who did not want to preach where God told him to go. Nineveh had a bad reputation regarding preachers. They skinned them alive so one can understand Jonah's hesitancy! His plan was to flee ("You can run but you can't hide") so he found a ship and started his escape. The story unfolds and tells of a storm that almost sank the vessel. Jonah was cast overboard into the sea, the ship was saved, and Jonah ended up doing God’s bidding.

On and on, one can read thrilling stories of ocean voyages, ship wrecks, and rescues by gallant heroes. Biblical Archaeology Review (September/October 2004) tells of the finding of a sunken ship, 20 miles south of Haifa. Ami Eshel lived at the Kibbutz Ma’agan Mikhael, and was scuba diving when “he noticed an unusual pile of rocks with a beam of blackened wood protruding from it. This was, it turned out, what fellow- kibbutz-member Elisha Linder had been looking for four years. Linder is a professor at Haifa University and the father of maritime archaeology in Israel; he had long dreamed of finding an ancient wreck off the coast — and here it was; a 2,400 year-old ship.”

Lifting the One-armed Wooden Anchor

The ship was well preserved beneath several feet of sand and clay. The divers who excavated it could smell the resin in the wood. “Indeed, they uncovered not just the ship’s frame, planks and anchor, but ropes (square knots!), wooden hand-tools, cooking pots and cosmetics cases.” The size was estimated to be 43 feet long. The art of shipbuilding in 400 B.C. is very interesting. “Shipwrights reinforced their construction by sewing planks together. The craft was skillfully sewn, nailed, pegged and otherwise joined together.”

We cannot tell how it sank, if anyone lost their life, who owned it, or where it was headed. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating story.