This one has always been a head scratcher.
As far as I could figure out, there was nothing nautical about the Nativity. Bethlehem is probably a 2-day camel ride from the Mediterranean. But apparently, according to the fourth stanza, the ships sailed into a landlocked town.
So what are the ships the singer is talking about?
It’s possible the lyricist, William Sandys, was thinking of the three wise men as being the “ships.” Camels, after all, are known as ships of the desert.
Or they were metaphorical in some way. Or symbolic of some event that happened in between the birth of Jesus and 1833, when Sandys published his lyrics.
The song seems out of place entering the second quarter of the 21st century. But I’m sure there are folks who love it.
Here’s a version by the choir of New York’s Trinity Church:
SUBJECTISM 