This is a project I did for my Advanced Media Writing class. One day, I went out to the graveyard in Rexburg and picked a random tombstone. I then had to find as much as we could about that person and his life and write about something that happened to him with as much detail as possible.
Note: The hyperlinks for the footnotes are kind of not working for me. It'll probably be easier to just scroll down to see them.
Note: The hyperlinks for the footnotes are kind of not working for me. It'll probably be easier to just scroll down to see them.
----------
On the Monarch of the Sea
Liverpool, England; May 16, 1861
Hundreds of immigrants swarmed the docks, making their final preparations before boarding the Monarch of the Sea for their month-long voyage to America. Voices speaking in English, French, Dutch, German, and Swiss buzzed with anticipation. Presidents Lyman, Rich, and Cannon had just organized the party of nearly a thousand saints and appointed Elder Jabez Woodard as President during the voyage, with Elders Hanz . O. Hansen and Niels Wilhelmsen as his counselors. Soon the ship would lift anchor, and the next leg of the long journey to Utah would begin.
Casper Steiner stayed close to his parents so he wouldn’t get lost in the masses. He and his family had been baptized the year before, when he was but fourteen, and now they had left their home in Bern, Switzerland to join the rest of the Saints in Utah. They had arrived in Liverpool just two days ago, and within hours they had secured passage on the Monarch of the Sea with a company of about 560 converts from Denmark, Switzerland, and Norway. In total, almost a thousand Saints would be making this voyage. Rumor said that the Monarch was the largest ship to have carried Latter-day Saints across the Atlantic thus far. Rumor also said that this was the largest company of Saints to make the voyage on one ship. Casper had no trouble believing either.
The Saints gradually made their way to the steerage, the lowest deck of the ship, where they would be staying for the duration of the voyage. There was almost no privacy, or even room to move about, among so many travelers packed into so small a space. Already some of the Saints were murmuring about the cramped space and the rickety state of the ship. Casper hoped the meals wouldn’t cause further dissention. He’d heard from other travelers that the food given to steerage passengers was unsatisfactory more often than not.
Soon the ship set sail, and the voyage began. It would take one month to reach New York. From there, the Saints would travel by land to reach Utah. Then their new lives would begin.
Casper ate his cold lunch in silence, envying the passengers whose turn it was to cook. He knew it was impossible for everyone to cook all their meals, and that the limitation of five hot meals a week was necessary, but he longed for a bit of bacon to go with his hard tack. The provisions were decent, and sometimes the captain would send a little soup down to them, but the smell of warm bacon he could not have made his stomach rumble nonetheless.
Casper noticed a little Swedish girl, about six years old, eating what looked like a dried apple slice[1]. “What’s your name?” he asked in German. The girl looked startled and hid the apple behind her back. He wondered where she’d gotten the apple in the first place. Passengers in the steerage didn’t usually get such rations. She didn’t look like she spoke German, so he decided to let her be.
Casper went up on deck to get some fresh air. The smell in the steerage was becoming unbearable, and the air was always stale. The sea was choppy today, and he saw a few icebergs in the distance. One must have been at least 200 feet high, but he had no way of knowing for sure. Two young Swedish women were standing a short distance away, pointing towards the icebergs. Above them, a young sailor was working in the mast. A heavy iron spike slipped from his grasp and plummeted to the deck. There was a dull thud! and one of the Swedish girls cried out in pain, blood streaming from her head.
The young sailor quickly climbed down from the mast. A couple officers were already at her side. The other girl had disappeared inside the ship, undoubtedly to find the injured girl’s mother. The officers immediately began yelling at the young sailor, and soon their argument came to blows. Casper knew it had been an accident, but he had no way of telling the officers, so the beating continued, causing passersby to stop and watch.
The girl’s mother emerged from below. By now a small crowd had gathered around the scene, some to help the injured girl and others to shout their disdain at the young sailor. The mother pushed her way through the crowd and began yelling at the officers in Swedish. Though few understood her words, everyone could see what she meant. “You leave him be!” she was saying. “He never meant to hurt my daughter!”
The officers backed away from the young sailor, who thanked the Swedish woman for her kindness. The girl was taken below to rest and recover. Though the sailor and the woman spoke different languages, their messages were clear to all who saw.
The kitchen bustled. Mealtime was nearing, and the sailors wanted their food. The Negro cook was passing food to the crew as fast as he could, and soon the crowd dispersed. Casper didn’t usually come here, but the Danish boys he usually played with were in a sacrament meeting. With so many Saints onboard, President Woodard had divided them into 11 wards, and some held meetings during the week[2]. His ward usually met on Tuesdays, but rough weather had forced them to cancel the meeting. Even now, too many got seasick for them to really gather and share their testimonies.
Casper noticed the little Swedish girl talking to the Negro cook. She was well-known among the crew and had befriended most of the sailors. As he watched, the cook passed her a couple prunes when he thought no one was looking. Casper pretended not to notice as the little girl hurried away with her prize. He wondered what the punishment would be if Captain Gardner found out the cook was sneaking treats to the steerage passengers. The Captain was a kind man, but strict, and the little girl was by no means the only beneficiary of the Negro’s generosity. He would sneak soup down to the Saints from time to time, and Casper had a feeling the missing soup would not go unnoticed for much longer.
The ship creaked and groaned as the storm raged around it. The Saints had been huddled in the steerage for four days, and the tempest showed no signs of ending. The crew had readied all six longboats in case the Monarch began to go under and had sworn that no Mormon would get on them. Casper knew it was unfair, but there was nothing they could do to persuade the sailors otherwise. They were all frightened, despite Captain Gardner’s reassurance that they would make it to New York. “We always get through when we have Mormons,” he’d said.
On the fourth day, President Woodard called several elders together and began speaking to them in low tones. Then he announced, “We are going outside to pray for our safety. If you aren’t praying already, now would be a good time to start.” The group of elders headed for the upper decks, and the steerage soon filled with a thousand muttered prayers.[3]
A short time later, the winds grew still and the waves shrank. The storm had passed. “I told you we’d make it,” Captain Gardner said. “We always get through when we have Mormons.”
The Negro cook was dead. Rumor had it that the captain had starved him to death after he found out he was giving the Saints food he shouldn’t have given them. Now his body was wrapped in a sheet and lying on a long board with a weight tied to his legs. The sailors carried him to the side of the ship and slid him into the ocean. There was a splash, and then nothing.
The little Swedish girl stood on the deck for a while, crying, until her mother came and took her below. Casper followed them a few minutes later.
The Matriarch landed in New York after 35 days at sea. A thousand Saints disembarked in Castle Garden under the watchful gaze of the Goddess of Liberty.[4] They thanked the crew for their kind treatment and carried their things ashore. Soldiers were marching through the streets, recruiting men to fight against the South, which had rebelled against the North. Casper didn’t know what that meant for him or his family, but he hoped they wouldn’t be separated before they reached Utah.
Castle Garden seemed to be where all the emigrants came. People were spreading quilts and blankets on the dirty floor to sleep on during the night. Some of the emigrants found shelter in hotels. They only spent a few days in New York before continuing on to Salt Lake.[5]
The party arrived in Salt Lake in September of that year. Casper would go on to settle Rexburg with his wife and children. He would serve as a bishop and as a member of the high council before succumbing to pneumonia in January of 1910. Of course, he had no way of knowing this as a boy of fifteen lying on the floor in Castle Garden. Only God knew what his future would hold.
[1] I don’t know if Casper Steiner and Alma Elizabeth Mineer Felt ever met or spoke. However, given the circumstances, I think it’s likely.
[2] Whether they were forced to do so with so many wards or whether they simply enjoyed gathering to share testimonies is unclear from the evidence I’ve gathered.
[3] I don’t know the details of how this event happened, but this seems a reasonable guess as to how it might have occurred.
[4] This I assume is an older name for the Statue of Liberty.
[5] Here the various accounts of the journey differ, and it’s probable that different families took different routes. I used the route that seems most common to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment