Glade Family Line
Here is Richard Litson Jr.'s travel account from the the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, reproduced exactly as I found it. The notes are not mine. His biography can be found here. (Link.) When it says "Training" in the title, that means the trip by train.
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| Porth Train Station shown at the end of Station Street. Porth, Wales. |
BOOK OF ACCOUNT OF VOYAGE AND TRAINING AND OVERLAND TRAVELS
Written by Richard Litson, Junior
(Written at age 14.)
(The following account is from a copy furnished to me by Kenneth Barker, 5412 Glen Haven Road, Sequel, California, March 10, 1967, which was copied from the papers of Sarah Turpin Goodwin. I have taken the liberty of slightly editing the same for production. Any corrections or additions I have made have been enclosed in parentheses. A more condensed account was obtained some years ago from Mabel and Leo Turpin.)
Members of immediate party:
Richard Litson, Senior, born 18 Sep 1819
Frances Ann Matthews Litson, born 1 May 1819
Richard Litson, Junior, born 24 Aug 1851
Joseph Young Litson, born 24 Sep 1858
April 26, 1866 — We started from Porth Station on the night of this instance. We lodged that night in 45 Union Terrace, Merthyr 2, of the instance. We started with a special train from Merthyr to Liverpool. We started from Merthyr at 9:30 a.m. and arrived in Liverpool at 5:45 p.m. We rode in the L. and N.W. Railway train. We rode through a few tunnels. On that night we searched for a place to sleep and we slept in Nol Spellow Place, Liverpool.
Saturday, April 28 — We had breakfast there the next morning. We then started for the ship. We had 3 miles to walk until we arrived at Bramley Moore Dock. The name of this ship is John Bright. We went and sat on our luggage all day because father was not come from the office. We had our luggage weighed and at half past 4 p.m. we went into the ship and got ourselves fixed in No. 417 and 418 berths, No. 8 ward. We had our beds and tins and went to bed.
Sunday, April 29 — We left the dock about mid-day and sailed a small space, standing afterwards in that place. A few more people came aboard. We saw Brigham Young, Junior, in the afternoon and we had an excellent council meeting on board by him and the meeting was closed in a certain while and Brigham left the ship and wont back on board the Royal Alfred. We had a fair night.
Monday, April 30 — This day we were examined by the doctor ready to go on with the ship for New York. In the afternoon we started on our journey. Fair night.
Tuesday, May 1 — We had fine weather and all that week we saw several sea pigs jumping up out of the water.
Sunday, May 6 — We had a hard head wind and in the latter part of the eve the sea water plunged up at the front of the ship. Fair night.
Monday, May 7 — It was a rough sea.
Tuesday, May 8 — It was a fine day but still a rough sea. Today Mother is rather sickly and weak. The ship glides along pretty well. There are many great waves around about. The sea looks like a mountain. We must retire to rest now. We slept and got up the next morning [May 9] and found that the ship went on pretty mild but a rough sea. Mother is much better today. Some of the Saints do help them pretty often. A ship went by us this morning. It is raining a little tonight.
Thursday, May-10 — A ship passed us this morning for Liverpool and the wind was ahead of her and just right for her, and another passed the same time going west. It is a rough sea this morning, but the ship is going middling well. The wind is with us now. We had a storm of rain about 10 o’clock a.m. but it passed off. This is a fine day again. The sailors are running up the rope stairs to fix the sails. The ship tossed very much in the evening and the goods rolled about in every direction. We had a very rough night.
Friday, May 11 — A fine morning. About 2 p.m. all of us had to go up on deck. The sailors were burning out the lower decks in case to purify them. It is a middling fine day. The ship is tossing a little tonight, but not so much as last night by far. It is much milder tonight and not so windy. We are going on very quiet tonight.
To be continued...
Picture of Porth Train Station used under a Creative Commons License from pellethepoet on Flickr.
Book of Account of Voyage and Training and Overland Travels (Part 1—Part 2—Part 3—Part 4—Part 5—Part 6—Part 7)
I'm assuming that the "sea pigs" were dolphins. I think "pig" is an interesting name for them.
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