"EIGHTY-SECOND COMPANY. -- Charles Buck, 403 souls. On the seventeenth of January, the clipper ship Charles Buck, Captain Smalley, sailed from Liverpool, England, with four hundred and three souls on board including the remainder (about seventy) of the Scandinavian emigration for the season, in charge of Elder Eric G. M. Hogan, and the remainder of the British Saints who had been reshipped from the Helios, the whole under the presidency of Elder Richard Ballantyne, who had recently arrived in England from his mission to Hindostan.
The emigrants, who sailed on the Charles Buck, were somewhat depressed in spirits, because of their long detention in Liverpool; and by living in unhealthy places as well as on scanty diet, their general health had become somewhat impaired. When they came on board seasickness also prostrated many, but through the blessings of the Lord attending the ordinance of the laying on of hands, and anointing with oil, together with such medicines as the spirit of wisdom dictated the brethren to administer, the sick were raised to health, and only three children died during the voyage. One of these was a boy, seven years old, who got entangled in the ropes of the ship, about a week after sailing from Liverpool, and was thrown overboard and drowned. One birth also occurred on board. The voyage throughout was prosperous; the winds being light and the sea calm. In consequence of head winds after leaving the Irish Channel, the ship took a more easterly course than usual, and came in sight of the Cape de Verde Islands on the tenth of February. A favorable wind then brought her to the Islands of Guadaloupe and Antigua on the twenty-seventh.
The English part of this company who had been shipped on board the Helios at Liverpool by President F. D. Richards, had been provided for on an unusually comfortable and liberal scale on that ship; but when finally reshipped on the Charles Buck, the excellent provisions furnished by President Richards were withheld from them, and in their stead some raw oatmeal, coarse biscuit and a little rice and flour were furnished
; and even of these articles a sufficient quantity was not shipped, so that the passengers, after being out six weeks, were placed on short allowance of provisions. This was about two weeks before their arrival in New Orleans. For several days many of the Saints had nothing to eat but oatmeal cakes or porridge, and for three days only two quarts of water was served out to each passenger.
Notwithstanding these unpleasant circumstances, the emigrants manifested an unusual measure of cheerfulness and patience. Whatever sickness and debility they suffered was chiefly occasioned through the want of something nutritious and desirable to eat.
About the fourteenth of March, 1855, the Charles Buck arrived at New Orleans from which city the emigrants continued the journey up the Mississippi River on the sixteenth, on board the fine steamer Michigan. Through the exertions and preferred help of Elder McGaw, the church emigration agent at New Orleans, together with the liberal contributions of those Saints who had a few shillings to spare, the whole company were taken along. Had it not been for this, a number of the Saints would have stopped at New Orleans to earn means, wherewith to pay their passage to St. Louis or Cincinnati, later on. The fare from New Orleans to St. Louis was three dollars and a half for each adult passenger; children under fourteen and over one year, half price. The captain of the Michigan behaved very badly toward the Saints. As the boat left the warf in New Orleans, John Eccleson fell overboard and was drowned. Four children died on the way to St. Louis. A Danish brother by the name of Nordberg fell overboard the morning before arriving at St. Louis and perished.
On the twenty-seventh of March the company arrived at St. Louis, from whence one hundred and ninety-one Saints reembarked on the third of April, in charge of Elder Richard Ballantyne, who was instructed to land at Atchison, and take charge of all P. [Perpetual] E. [Emigration] Fund passengers who would be shipped to that place. Forty of the Danish Saints under the preseidency of Elder Hogan, left St. Louis for the same destination on the thirty-first of March, and joined P. O. Hansen's company a few days later in Leavenworth; and thence subsequently traveled to Mormon Grove, near Atchison. In consequence of the rivers being low, boats were scarce, and fares very high, and it was with considerable difficulty that the brethren at St. Louis succeeded in shipping the company to Atchison. The unprecedented rush of people to Kansas and Nebraska also materially increased the rate of fares and the difficulty of shipping to the upper county. (Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, pp.73, 202, 267, 300, 315, 490; Desert News of June 13, 1855.)"
Cont., 13:12 (Oct. 1892), pp.544-45
"Wed. 17. [Jan. 1855] -- The ship Charles Buck sailed from Liverpool, England, with 403 Saints, under the direction of Richard Ballantyne. The company arrived at New Orleans about March 14th, and at St. Louis March 27th."
CC, p.53
(source abbreviations)