. . . My brother and I started for Utah May 17. When I was a few days over 17 years old, I left my half sister Rose Sears, (or Lizzie) and her 3 children, and their half brother, and my two own sisters, Polly and Lottie, my father back there; it was a sad parting. We traveled several hours before we got to Liverpool. I was in the Liverpool office for a while, then came down to the docks, got on the ship. Saints all sang "Babylon, we bid thee farewell." At half past two Saturday afternoon, we left our native land for Zion on the ship S.S. Arizona, 17 May, 1884. I was quite seasick crossing the channel. Sunday morning we saw away in the distance Ireland, everything looked so pretty and green. Boats from there were at the side of the big vessel taking off mail. We traveled on a few more days, everything on board [p.8] was quiet; sea calm. We could even turn a rope and skip on deck. Watched the sailors wash the deck and sing, climb the riggings. We had lovely hot biscuits every morning, plenty there to eat. I saw the compass and bigwheel. It was quite a sight walking around the deck watching sailors casting a rope into the sea. It told how fast we traveled. One day the ship began to rock awful. I was sitting close to the cabins. All at once it threw me toward the ship rail. Was caught and put back in my seat. The waves began to roll awful. Sky was black, the water on the ocean looked dark blue, then green. Waves waves [SIC] rolled over the deck and we were ordered downstairs to our cabins. Next day was calm and foggy. We were crossing the banks of Newfoundland. The fog whistles kept blowing. When the fog cleared we saw a whale rise out of the ocean. It had come up to breathe. Saw large icebergs floating down, looked like they weighed tons. As we neared the New York Harbor Sunday afternoon the ship stopped for the pilot to get on and he guided the vessel into the harbor about 8 o'clock p.m. We did not leave the vessel until the following morning (Monday), 8 days on the Atlantic Ocean. We saw the goddess of liberty all lit up Sunday evening when we arrived. I made several friends on the voyage. John Potter [p.9] was one; Albert Powers, 3 or 4 girls, etc. When we left England the English flag was raised on top of the mast. When we arrived in New York the American flag was flying there too. We left the vessel and stayed all day in New York. The custom officers looked through our trunks to see if we had anything in them that we had to pay duty on. All that was not vaccinated before we left England was vaccinated before we left the ship. We got on the train in the evening for Utah. On the way to Utah some of the states we passed through the towns were flooded with water. People riding around in boats, 6 days and nights on the train. Arrived Sunday at noon in Ogden. Stayed there a short time, then went to Salt Lake. Stayed in the tithing office. . . .[p.10]

BIB: Matthews, Annie Maria Richards. Reminiscences (Ms 7229), pp. 8-10. (CHL).
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