The Carter Family's 1935 Record "Gospel Ship" (with information about White Americans' versions of that hymn)

 

The Carter Family - Gospel Ship (1935)

 The Carter Family Channel, Jan 12, 2022

27th Recording Session and the 162nd song The Carter Family recorded on 7th May 1935 At ARC Studios, 1776 Broadway, New York.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a three part pancocojams series about examples of the Hymn/Gospel songs with the titles "The Old Gospel Ship", "Take A Trip" or similar titles.

This post showcases a 1935 sound file of The Carter Family singing their version of "The Old Gospel Ship".The lyrics for The Carter Family's version of "The Old Gospel Ship" is also included in that post. That post also includes an auto-generated transcript from a YouTube video about the history of "The Old Gospel Ship" hymn. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/03/lyrics-of-some-african-american.html for Part i of this pancocojams series. That post presents some comments from a Mudcat folk music discussion thread about several 19th century African American Spirituals that refer to Gospel ships sailing. These songs may be part of more well known"The Old Ship Of Zion" family of Spirituals/Hymns. Information about Sam Lucas is presented in the Addendum of this post...

That pancocojams post also presents a comment from that same Mudcat discussion thread about African American composer of and performer Sam Lucas who wrote a version of "The Gospel Ship" in the late 19th century.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/03/african-american-examples-of-take-trip.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post showcases six YouTube examples of 21st century African American singers performing "Take A Trip" (On That Good Old Gospel Ship). The lyrics to two versions of that Gospel song are included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for historical, religious, and socio-cultural purpose.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to The Carter Family for their musical legacy. Thsnks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these YouTube examples that are featured in this post. 

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LYRICS - GOSPEL SHIP
(traditional; arranged by The Carter Family)

I'm going to take a trip in that old gospel ship

I'm going far beyond the sky

I'm gonna shout and sing till the heavens ring

When I bid this world good-bye

[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]

I have good news to bring and that is why I sing

All my joys with you I'll share

I'm going to take a trip in that old gospel ship

And go sailing through the air

 

I'm going to take a trip in that old gospel ship

I'm going far beyond the sky

I'm gonna shout and sing till the heavens ring

When I bid this world good-bye

 

[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]

 

I can scarcely wait, I know I won't be late

I'll spend my time in prayer

And when the ship comes in I'll leave this world of sin

And go sailing through the air

 

I'm going to take a trip in that old gospel ship

I'm going far beyond the sky

I'm gonna shout and sing till the heavens ring

When I bid this world good-bye

[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]

If you are ashamed of me you ought not to be

Yes, you'd better have a care

If too much fault you find you'll sure be left behind

While I'm sailing through the air

 

I'm going to take a trip in that old gospel ship

I'm going far beyond the sky

I'm gonna shout and sing till the heavens ring

When I bid this world good-bye

online source- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yn10rbB3Sg&list=PLO931CkouO9vhQeKSKviX1CYWxrHjwYWk "Carter Family-Gospel Ship"
published by ILOveOldies, Mar 9, 2011

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EXCERPT OF AN AUTO-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE SONG "GOSPEL SHIP" WITH A FOCUS ON WHITE AMERICANS' VERSIONS OF THAT SONG

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOSkIKUSsRM "The Old Gospel Ship" - Landmark Baptist,May 22, 2024

"actual author unknown, Johnson Oatman, Jr. (1856-1922), A.P. Carter (1891-1960), arranged during the 1930s by Alphus Laferve (1912-1988)"

 … it's called "The Old Gospel Ship" and it's kind of a sing along song. After you hear the chorus I hope you'll want to sing along. But uh I started recently searching it and it was presumed by title to have been written by uh Johnson Outman Jr. Now he wrote a lot of old songs and we've already spotlighted him. The old hymn "Count Your Many Blessings" - he wrote that song. But it appears that this gentleman Mr Oakman wrote a song called "The Old Gospel Ship" but it's not this version of the Old Gospel Ship. I got to reading through his lyrics kind of looking at the music. I thought "That's different".

So but as it turns out it's very likely that this old hymn had roots in Southwest Virginia believe it or not because even though he's not listed on the sheet music it appears that it's possible that Mr. AP Carter from over in Hilton's in Scott County discovered this song.

Now what Mr Hilton would do is he would go around as a traveling salesman he'd visit the Country Store that dotted the mountains and the hills and hollers of Virginia. West Virginia. Tennessee uh that he covered. And he would find old older people, usually, that would sing mountain songs for him. So it's very likely that he uh found this song .It's  not that likely he wrote it. A lot of AP Carter and the Carter family's music was songs that he discovered and then he got credit for arranging the song. So really the y'all like a good mystery you told me before it's really a mystery who wrote the words to this song.

But there are some things that we do know uh about this song. The arrangement that appears on the sheet music uh appears uh to have been uh uh arranged in the early 1930s by a man by the name of uh Alphus Laferves. Anybody heard of The Alphus Laferves Trio and then later The Laferves Quartet? So he arranged this song and it's a real bouncy type of rhythm that's in the song. Not sure you'll pick up on that with me and Dean a capella but nonetheless it's was really kind of probably an old trio or quartet song back in that day as well.

Also. [I] want you to pay attention to this song. This song is very indicative of songs that came out of the Great Depression.

[...]

In America ...people in in that era were were extremely depressed in their nature as the economy of the United States was greatly depressed. Now I said all that to say this since this song came about uh I believe 1934 was when it was arranged it appears and a lot of the old hymns from that era were songs about the Rapture of the church. A lot of them. And I've thought about that and thought about that and thought about that those people were probably so depressed in their existence that boy they were really looking forward to going home really looking forward to going home.

Now the theme of this song as you listen to the words comes from First 1 Thessalonians 4:13 and following. Listen what it says "But I would not have you be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep ...but ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also all which sleep in Jesus will God bring him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise."...

Comfort one another with these words. And this is a song about comfort. This is a song about Rapture this is a song about eternity."...
-snip-
This transcript continues with the speaker and another man singing the same lyrics to the song "The Gospel Ship" as given above for The Carter Family's 1935 record. 

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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.

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