. . . On the 20th of December 1852 the company comprising 297 souls left the Port of Copenhagen and sailed northward on the Baltic Sea. The sea was very rough through Ostegat and Skagrack Channels, but far worse upon the North Sea they being tossed back and forth by the wind and waves, requiring two weeks to reach Hull, England. Many times they thought they would surely "go down," but he who controls the winds and the waves did not forsake them. Disembarking at Hull they crossed England on the Railroad to Liverpool. This was the first and only time that my father rode in a railroad train. A ship, the Forest Monarch had been chartered. Captain Brown in command. This was what would now be called a very small ship, a three mast schooner which had carried other Latter-day Saints across the Atlantic, and I might say ship owners were very pleased to carry Latter-day Saints immigrants or elders. Some saying it was the best [p.7] assurance of a safe trip that was known, as it was a well known fact that for many years no ship had been lost between European parts and America carrying Mormons. On Jan. 8, 1853 as nearly as we can determine, the Forest Monarch with 297 Danish immigrants, with a few others from the British Isles left Liverpool for New Orleans, U.S.A. Among the luggage of my parents was two wooden boxes in which they had packed clothing. These boxes were three feet six inches long by two feet six inches wide. One was twenty-six inches high, the other thirty inches high. I give the dimensions in detail, because my mother's bed was made upon these boxes, and since one was four inches higher than the other, it would be a rather uncomfortable bedstead. A rope was fastened at a convenient height lengthwise of the bed to which she could hold when the ship rocked too heavily. On the 14th of February my mother presented her husband a daughter as a birthday remembrance, that being his thirty-first birthday. She was given the name of Geraldine. This was indeed a severe experience when we contemplate the above described bed, the meager means of sanitation, inadequate food and general discomfort. We can only roughly calculate where this birth occurred, but probably near mid Atlantic. Another babe was born about the same time to Sister Hannah Dennison, wife of Hans Dennison who was named for my father and the name of the ship. Viz: Jens Monarch Dennison. I have heard my mother tell of friends washing baby things as best they could and she and Sister Dennison would finish drying them by the heat of their bodies.

After a long tedious voyage they landed at New Orleans sometime near the latter part of March, having been on the ship eleven weeks. Spring had come and the orange trees were in bloom and all nature was clothed in resplendent beauty in contrast to the dreary surroundings they had so recently left. They remained in New Orleans a short time waiting for a river boat sufficiently large enough to carry the company up the Mississippi River. When the boat [p.8] was secured they again set sail up the Mighty Father of Waters. This was a real pleasure trip where they could be on dock [deck] and enjoy the beautiful scenery on both sides. Reaching St. Louis they landed and remained there a month when they again embarked on a steamer which carried them up the Mississippi to Keokuk, Iowa, where they landed and from this point they were to start across the plains. . . . [p.9]

. . . they reached Salt Lake City on September 29, 1853. . . . [p.12]

BIB: Hansen, Joseph. Hansen Family History (Ms 4519), pp. 7-9,12 Acc. #26144. (CHL)
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