With the decision being made, the money paid or borrowed, James, Sarah, John and Jane were ready to leave England and emigrate to the Salt Lake Valley.  The journey would take them from Liverpool, England to New Orleans, Louisiana, by ship.  Then up the Mississippi River by ferry boat to Keokuk, Iowa, and then across the plains and mountains to the Salt Lake Valley by wagon and walking.  This journey would begin on February 21, 1853 and conclude on September 30, 1853.  Their crossing would take the total of 221 days, just over seven months. 

Daniel and Ruth Williams (69 and 73 years old), John’s parents, left Liverpool, England on February 5th, 1853, two weeks prior to the two couples and ended their journey in Salt Lake on October 10, 1853, ten days later than the arrival of their son, John Williams.

The “Mormons” had been evicted from Nauvoo, Illinois in September of 1846 and first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.  The journey for these saints of Nauvoo to this new untamed valley would have been very arduous, since a lot of them had left Nauvoo without a lot of provisions and the route west was uncharted. The English saints had a six week voyage across the Atlantic, then another month to ferry up the Mississippi, just to get to the starting point of the Nauvoo Saints.   In 1853, Salt Lake City was a Frontier town of six years, not a metropolitan city like some of the cities of the east.  I can only imagine what some of the thoughts could have been, “what have we done”.

On February 21, 1853 all boarded the ship, called the International.  James and Sarah Denning with their two children, Sarah Jane (3 years old) and James Henry (being born on January 25th, less than one month prior).  John and Jane Williams, with Jane being ready to deliver at any time.  These are the conditions that the two young couples were in as they started this long journey to a new land.

To give you some idea of what it would have been like, I have included the following drawing of a similar ship, showing the loading process, the quarters and decks of the ship.

As you look at the first drawing of the loading of luggage and preparation for boarding, consider that a lot of these newly baptized saints, spoke different languages and communication was not easy.  This would have only add to the confusion of getting all arranged for the trip.

The ship was in the Irish Channel, waiting for the winds to pick up, when James Henry, the new baby son of James and Sarah, became very ill.  Soon he was pronounced dead.  As the Denning’s began to grieve the loss of their tiny son, the baby was strapped to a board and lowered into the frigid, salty water.  Suddenly, shouts arose from another passenger for the burial at sea to stop for he had seen the baby breathe.

In the captain’s journal, he mentions that five days after the start of the voyage that John and Jane Williams had a female child.  The baby was given the name of Elvira Ann Williams (she lived for ninety-one years).

This ship had 425 LDS emigrants on board, along with 26 crew and few non-member friends.  At the beginning of the journey, the ship encountered storms and rough seas causing a lot of sea sickness and keeping the passengers in their berths.   Sarah Denning became quite sick and so Jane, her sister, nursed both babies.

At this time, the length of the trip across the Atlantic was dependent on the weather.  Favorable winds would result in a shorter trip and storms and counter winds could result in a longer trip.  After 54 days at sea, the International docked in New Orleans.

For further reading on the ships that crossed the Atlantic, go to the following web site:  https://saintsbysea.lib.byu.edu/.     This site has a list of all ships carrying saints to America from 1840 to 1931.  Also, as you pull up each individual voyage, you can find any existing journals of those that made the trip.   I found these commentaries quite interesting.  They go into detail of conditions on the ships, the sicknesses, the thoughts and other details of the journey across the ocean.

For this narrative, the following two ships are of interest:

• Jersey – Daniel and Ruth Williams
• International – James and Sarah Denning and John and Jane Williams

This completes the first part of the Journey to Zion, the jump from England to America.