March 1860. [- - -]

26th. We went on board of the ship Underwriter at 9 o'clock in the morning. It was a drizzly day.

27th. There was a man fell overboard but he was not drowned. He hurt himself a little with falling. We started out of the Waterloo Dock just before 11 o'clock and it took about 3 hours and a half to et the vessel out of the dock. We went about half way across the river between Liverpool and Birkenhead and then cast anchor. The anchor was thrown overboard at 20 minutes to 3 o'clock and [- - -] 15 minutes to lower the anchor.

28th We had a pretty fine day and at night I was standing watch on the deck for the purpose of keeping the seamen from going down into the lower decks or stealing anything while the passengers are asleep. There is a fresh watch every 3 hours during the night. The first commencing at 9 o'clock at night and comes off at 12 o'clock; the second from 12 o'clock to 3 in the morning; the third watch from 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock. This kind of watching is continued during the voyage. I went on watch at 12 and came off at 3 in the morning of the 29th.

29th. It was fine for the season of the year. It is a grand sight at night - from the middle of the river to see the docks lit up and the vessels that are lighted with blue and red lights.

30th. We started out of the river for New York. They began to lift the anchor at 1/2 past 9 o'clock and it took about 1 hour and a 1/4 to raise it out of the water. We set sail at 11 o'clock. With the tug steamer we was taken about 50 miles by the steamer. It left us about 6 o'clock. It was with us 7 hours. We had not been 2 hours sailing after the tug steamer left us before some was sick that would be about 9 hours. When we [p.1] had been sailing about 3 hours we came in sight of Welch Wales. There was some mountains several with snow in Wales. It was at our south side.

31st. We passed Belfast Lighthouse in Ireland at half past 7 o'clock in the morning. We passed a many mountains and rocks in Ireland. It is a very rough country what I saw. We passed between Ireland and Scotland with Ireland at our south side and Scotland at our north side.

1st April. It was a fine morning with a pretty good breeze. I got up before 6 o'clock in the morning. I began to feel sick so I went to bed again and I did not get up till the next morning.

2nd. It was pretty fine and towards night we lost sight of land. Scotland was the last place we saw. We had a rough night. 1 of the ropes of the main sail was blown in two and 3 sails was blown to pieces but we had got out of the Irish Channel nearly.

3rd it was pretty calm and from 6 o'clock at night till nearly 8 o'clock we scarcely had a breeze at all and at 8 o'clock it began to blow a fine breeze.

4th. We had a fine day but not much breeze.

5th. We had a fine day in the morning. We saw a sailing vessel. It was making for Liverpool.

6th. We had a rough cold day and a rough night. Just before 8 o'clock at night it blew 1 of the main sails all to pieces. I was watching on the deck from 12 o'clock till 3 in the morning of the 7th. I had not been watching long before it blew one of the sails to pieces and broke 1 of the ropes.

7th. We had a rough day. We could scarcely walk about. The ship rocked so very much a very many fell down and spilled their [p.2] soup and potatoes and cakes and pies and the tin bottles and boxes rolling about and men and women falling down and sliding under the berths and crushing the bottles sides together and hurting themselves at times.

8th We had a rough day but it got calmer towards night.

9th. It was fine in the morning I saw 4 large fishes. The seamen said they was sea pigs. Their bodies looked very much like pigs. They would be about 60 stones each in weight.

10th. It was very calm but before noon it came on and the ship rocked very much all the afternoon making the bottles, tins and boxes roll about that was not well fastened.

11th. It was pretty fine. I saw a very many fishes jumping out of the water. I should think they would be from 1 stone to 6 stones in weight.

12th. It was very fine but before noon the winds got pretty high and continued all night. It was the roughest night we have had. The rocking of the vessel nearly throwing us out of our beds. Sometimes during the night we lost 10 casks of fresh water containing 2000 gallons of water for eating purposes.

13th. It was fine. We saw two vessels but they was a very long way off.

14th. We had a very fine sunshiny day but not much breeze but towards the night we had a good breeze.

15th. It was very fine but not much breeze. We had a preaching meeting on deck it was the first Sunday the weather would permit us to have a meeting.

16th. It was a fine day in the morning. About 8 o'clock we saw a fishing smack. There was a [p.3] child died aged 4 months and was thrown overboard at 7 o'clock at night.

17th. We had a cold day. In the morning it hailed and in the afternoon it snowed slightly. I found a lot of seashells swimming on top of the water of various colors and sizes.

18th. We had a fine day. We saw 3 vessels but one of them was so far off we could only see the top of the mast. There was a woman died in the night aged 55 and was thrown overboard 1/4 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon. She came from Switzerland.

19th. [- - -] day in the afternoon it hailed. There was a man died aged 84 years at 1/4 past 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

20th. We had a fine day and in the afternoon that man which died yesterday was thrown overboard at 3 o'clock in the afternoon from Switzerland.

21st. We had a cold, foggy day. We could not see far from the ship side till afternoon.

22nd. It was cold and foggy all day.

23rd. We had a clear fine day and at night it was clear. We saw the new moon for the first time.

24th. We had a fine day and pretty warm. There was child died aged 1 year and 8 months and was thrown overboard at 7 o'clock at night.

25th. It was fine. We had a shower of rain just before noon and at night we had some thunder and lightning, but not heavy, from 7 to 9 o'clock.

26th. We had some rain in the morning but it turned out fine before noon. We saw a vessel in the afternoon. We hoisted our flag and then they hoisted theirs so that the captain could look through his spy glass at them to know what vessel it was. This vessel was the nearest to us of any since we left sight of land and the seamen said it was about 4 miles from us. We have seen one vessel besides this [p.4] that was pretty gain to us up to this time and all the rest had been from 10 to 20 miles from us that we have seen since we left sight of land.

27th. We had a pretty fine day we saw 1 vessel but it was a long way of nearly 20 miles. We had a clear moonlight night.

28th. We had a fine day. I saw 9 sea pigs.

29th. We had a fine day we had a meeting on deck in the forenoon and the Swiss had 1 on the deck in afternoon. We saw 3 vessels and one was a pilot boat with a man on for our vessel. It came to our vessel side at 6 o'clock at night and they stopped our vessel for him to get on and then we set sail again with him on board and left the pilot boat behind. This was the first time the vessel stopped since we left Liverpool river. Only when it has been calm it is nearly been at a standstill.

30th. We had a fine day. We came in sight of land at 12 o'clock noon. This is the first we have seen since we left sight of Scotland. This land is called the Long Islands. It is at our right side or north the Long Islands.

1st of May. We had a fine day in the morning. The tug steamer met us at 7 o'clock this morning to tug us in. It was tugging us 3 hours and then it left us at 10 o'clock and they anchored our vessel. We have been 32 days sailing within 1 hour from leaving the river at Liverpool up to the time of casting the anchor a short distance from New York. . . .[p.5][LETTER DOES NOT INCLUDE OVERLAND JOURNEY TO SALT LAKE CITY.]

BIB: Wright, George. Letters, 1860. pp. 1-8. (CHL)
(source abbreviations)