Steamship Wisconsin, Sept. 9, 1885.President D. H. Wells.

Dear Brother,--We left Queenstown on the morning of August 29th at 10 a.m., and had pleasant sailing for two hours, after which it began to blow, the waves began to roll, the ship to heave, and so did many of the passengers. This continued all the afternoon, and but few went to supper or breakfast the next morning. Many of the elders were very sick (Brother [John W.] Thornley being one of the worst), not putting in an appearance for several days. Food was taken to them in their berths.

There have been two deaths on the voyage, the first a baby of Sister Margaretha Degelleck, [Degelbeck] of Germany, aged ten months; the other, Sister Johanna C. Nyberg, a Scandinavian. They were buried at sea. We had also one birth, to Sister Caroline Sorenson, of a fine girl.

For one or two days we had pleasant weather, and the vessel pushed along nicely, the breeze being in our favor, and some getting over their seasickness, but Elders [John W.] Thornley, [George H.] Fowers and [Allen] Monk not much better yet. Two sisters had to be taken to the hospital on account of sickness.

The "Mormons" and "Mormonism" seem to be the subjects spoken of the most by the other passengers, one of their number having a good deal to say. He styles himself a professor, and did not believe in hiding his light under a bushel, and two or three others were like him. It was amusing to listen to their narrow, contracted, flimsy and illogical opinions on "Mormonism." It is very annoying at times, but we must put up with it, and console ourselves with the thought that we can afford to be evil spoken of better than these small souled knownothings can afford to so speak of us. On the banks of Newfoundland some of the Saints were taken sick again. The doctor was very kind, as also the steward and purser.

A committee from the passengers waited upon Brother [John W.] Thornley, to have him appoint some of the elders to address the saloon passengers on the fundamental principles of our faith; so after getting the consent of the purser, I was appointed to address them upon the first four principles; the apostasy, Joseph Smith, his prophecies and the marriage question. I told them I wanted one hour and a half to speak on these, but they would only give me one hour, so I prepared for the task, and after all was arranged, they wanted the privilege of replying two evenings later, so as to give their minister, a Reverend Doctor Rogers, time to gather up notes, etc., and to study up his subject. We objected to that, but said we would give him the hour after I had done, to which he objected, so the arrangement fell through. We had several meetings with the Saints, which were also attended by passengers from all parts of the ship.

The pilot came on board 400 miles from Sandy Hook, and we can here feel the warm American weather. A concert was held on board for the benefit of aged seamen. We arrived in quarantine at 8 p.m. on Sept. 8th, and the next morning the doctor came on board and the passengers landed at Castle Garden. Cabin passengers were landed at the Company's dock, where we passed the usual examination, and expect to leave at 7 p.m.

All send their kind love.
Respectfully,

F. [Francis] Greenwell. [p.620]

BIB: Greenwell, F., [Letter], Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star
47:39, (Sept. 28, 1885) p. 620. (CHL)
(source abbreviations)