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We think of the scene on a winter night on Nov. 25, 1120, off the coast of Normandy when a ship carrying the cream of English society struck a rock and every lordly soul was drowned in the “black and hideous, murky and ugly and dark” waters of the Atlantic. 

The ship carried the crown prince, 17-year-old William AEtheling, and his retinue of friends and hangers-on and many other high placed men and women of the family and kingdom of Henry I, son of William the Conquerer. On board were leading lords, dukes, knights, churchmen and courtiers, some accompanied by their wives and daughters. They had all of the money, authority, and prestige that this world has to offer. On the way back to England after Henry had successfully pacified his territories on the French coast, they were expecting to receive even greater worldly rewards from their support of the victorious king. The future looked sparkling bright. William had been promised the kingship of England and Normandy. 

Henry sailed ahead on another ship while William and his group sailed on the Blanche-Nef (“White Ship”), the fastest ship available. 

It was a magnificently appareled party. “To flaunt their status and wealth, the extremely affluent and influential coveted the finest silks, and William AEtheling was not slow in showing off his worth. Henry of Huntingdon wrote of how: ‘We saw William, the king’s son, clothed in silk embroidered with gold, surrounded by a throng of servants and guards, glittering in a glory all but heavenly.’ ... Richard of Lincoln [Richard FitzRoy, illegitimate son of Henry] was wearing clothes so fine that they were remembered clearly by those there who saw him--a princely peacock, happy to dazzle, proud of the admiring glances he attracted” (Charles Spence, The White Ship, chapter 11, “Bound for England”). 

When the announcement was made to board the ship in preparation for the journey across the English Channel, the hard-partying William ordered an enormous quantity of wine to be brought aboard, and the gay group proceeded to get drunk, together with most of the crew. 

When priests attempted to bless the journey and ask for God’s favor, the drunken party mocked them and chased them away, “shouting insults.” “This made the drunken spectators aboard howl with delight.” 

As a result of their intoxication, the mariners stupidly drove the ship full speed into a well-known large rock. The impact drove a huge hole into the ship and it “split completely and floundered.” “As she tipped over, the passengers and the remainder of the crew fell suddenly into the cold black water, screaming loudly.” Their sudden cries of extreme terror, the weeping and gnashing of teeth, were heard by those back on shore and even miles away by some on Henry’s ship, but they didn’t know what it was. “They assumed that the party on the White Ship had merely reached new heights of drunkenness and abandon.” The only soul to survive was a butcher who had boarded the ship in an attempt to obtain payment from his wealthy but undependable and careless creditors. 

The sudden terror of drowning was only the beginning of the weeping and gnashing of teeth for this worldly party, because after death they woke up in a place of eternal judgment, a place of no second chances, a place of utter hopelessness.

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One of the Bible’s many terrible descriptions of hell is the “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” It is mentioned six times in Matthew’s Gospel.

Mat 8:12  But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:42  And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:50  And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 24:51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 25:30  And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth

The word for “weeping” and “wailing” is the Greek klauthmós. It is more than crying; it is a strong lamentation, a wailing. 

The Bible warns of hell because of God’s love to men and His desire that they might be saved.

God is both a God of love and salvation and a God of righteous wrath and judgment. For those who reject God’s salvation and die without the Saviour, Jesus Christ, there is no escape from eternal judgment. 

The weeping and gnashing of teeth is the literal response of the lost in the face of the unspeakable terror, the utter hopelessness, of their eternal destruction. 

If the living could have but a glimpse into that terror, they would “repent,” but God knows that such repentance would not be true repentance and the faith would not be true faith. In fact, the living have more than a glimpse into eternal destruction in the Word of God if they will but read its pages and seek the truth.   

-David Cloud-