Greetings, 999.

Here's the lyrics you found:

Thread #41005   Message #590011
Posted By: Dicho
10-Nov-01 - 08:36 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Old Ship of Zion (spiritual)
Subject: Lyr Add: OLD SHIP OF ZION (DON'T YE VIEW DAT SHIP)

OLD SHIP OF ZION VIII
(DON'T YE VIEW DAT SHIP)

Don't ye view dat ship a come a sailin'? Hallelujah!
Don't ye view dat ship a come a sailin'? (3 times)
Don't ye view dat ship a come a sailin'? Hallelujah!

Dat ship is heavy loaded, Hallelujah!
Dat ship is havy loaded, (3 times)
Dat ship is heavy loaded, Hallelujah!

She neither reels nor totters, Hallelujah! etc.

She is loaded with bright angels, Hallelujah! etc.

Oh, how do you know dey are angels? Hallelujah! etc.

I know dem by-a de'r mournin', Hallelujah! etc.

Oh, yonder comes my Jesus, Hallelujah! etc.

Oh, how do you know it's Jesus? Hallelujah! etc.

I know him by-a His shinin', Hallelujah! etc.

Chorus: Indicated as 1st verse plus 1st line of second verse.

From Fifty Cabin and Plantation Songs, 1874, Thomas P. Fenner, Hampton Inst.

-snip-
The lines "Oh, yonder comes my Jesus, Hallelujah!/I know him by-a His shinin'" is the same as the line quoted by Howard Odum (1909) except that Odum didn't include the end word "Hallelujah.

Those lines may have been floaters that were used for multiple songs. Fenner's citation of "oh, yonder comes my Jesus" takes that line back to 1874.

Also, the reference to a "ship that neither reels or totters" is similar to the line "Church, the ship done rockin and reelin..." which is found in Example #2 & Example #3 of the "Yonder Comes My Jesus" song that are included in the post on my blog.

And the pattern of ending the lines with "Hallelujah" (or using the word "Hallelujah" as a response) is the same in the version of "Old Ship Of Zion" given above, in "Michael Row The Boat Ashore", and in the "Yonder Come My Jesus" examples that I found.

And yes, "Yonder Come My Jesus" sounds the same as "Michael Row The Boat Ashore". Certainly, that song sounds more like "Michael Row..." than the Old Ship Of Zion renditions that I'm used to hearing - renditions by the way, that don't have any hallelujah ending or any those lyrics that are given above.

Here's a link to a 1949 Gospel rendition of "The Old Ship Of Zion" by The Roberta Martin Singers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZojzCEHzv0. That's basically the same rendition of the song that I grew up with in the 1950s and 1960s in the New Jersey Baptist church I was a member of.

Thanks again for that information.