BROOKLYN

Ship: 445 tons: 125' x 28' x 14'

Built: 1834 by Joseph H. Russell at Newcastle, Maine

Few voyages have been as publicized-particularly in Mormon chronicles-as that of the square-rigged Brooklyn from New York to San Francisco in 1846. It was the longest passage made by a Mormon emigrant company. It was also unique in that the sea journey was from the east to the west coast of the United States. It all began when late in 1845. Elder Orson Pratt, presiding apostle over the church in the eastern states, received word that the Mormons were to leave Nauvoo. He dramatically issued a call to the Saints under his presidency to join the exodus. Elder Samuel Brannan, publisher of the Mormon paper, The Prophet (later the New York Messenger), was directed to charter a ship to carry a company by sea to California.

Brannan recruited 70 men, 68 women, and 100 children-238 persons, all but a very few members of the church. Captain Abel W. Richardson, master and a principal owner of the Brooklyn agreed to a fare of $75 for each adult, including provisions, and half fare for children. The passengers were mostly farmers and mechanics from the area. They took with them all the tools and implements needed in creating a new colony. Included also were a large number of books and the press used in printing The Prophet.

The Brooklyn sailed out of New York harbor on 4 February 1846. The voyage was eventful. The square-rigger encountered a severe storm in the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn, and weathered Mother storm in the Pacific. Ten passengers died-nine being buried at sea and one on Juan Fernandez Island, which was the place that inspired the story of Robinson Crusoe. The Brooklyn was not a fast sailer, but thorough preparation had served to make passengers as comfortable as possible. Discipline was enforced on the company, resulting in the excommunication of four members for misconduct and spiritual backsliding. During one of the storms Captain Richardson told the passengers that the vessel was lost. However, the Mormons were convinced of the Lord's protection and refused to consider such a possibility.

Augusta Joyce Crocheron, a passenger, penned a clear description of shipboard conditions:

As for the pleasure of the trip, we met disappointment, for we once lay becalmed in the tropics, and at another time we were "hatched below" during a terrific storm. Women and children were at night lashed to their berths, for in no other way could they keep in. Furniture rolled back and forth endangering limb and life. The waves swept the deck and even reached the staterooms.... Children's voices were crying in the darkness, mother's voices soothing or scolding, men's voices rising above the others, all mingled with the distressing groans and cries of the sick for help, and, above all, the roaring of the wind and howling of the tempest made a scene and feeling indescribable.

During the passage two babies were born. One was named Atlantic and the other Pacific. The vessel stopped briefly at Honolulu, Hawaii, and then continued on to San Francisco. After 177 days at sea and sailing some 24,000 miles, the Brooklyn and her weary passengers arrived at Yerba Buena on 31 July 1846. There the emigrants saw the American flag flying over the squalid village that would become San Francisco.

The Brooklyn was a typical full-rigged Yankee trader. Although her registration does not record the shipbuilder's name, Philip De La Mare, an early Mormon settler, stated that the vessel was built by Joseph H. Russell, who had been a shipbuilder in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The craft had a square stern, three masts, two decks, and a billethead. In 1839 the Brooklyn was owned by three New Yorkers-Edward Richardson, Abel W. Richardson, and Stephen C. Burdette. On this particular voyage Abel W. Richardson was master, although Edward Richardson had skippered the vessel on other voyages. In 1856 the Brooklyn's registration was cancelled on "the basis of a report received from the Collector of Customs. No further details are given." One historian wrote that she was one of the many ships that were converted into warehouses and buried in mud at San Francisco.

Captain Richardson had an excellent reputation as a master mariner and a gentleman of fine moral character. After more than sixty years in the merchant marine he died at the age of eighty-six on 15 January 1884 at New York City. His wife, age seventy-seven, died a few hours later.