Leaving an impact in Scandinavia
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OSLO, Norway — Sea Trek 2001, the commemorative voyage of eight tall sailing ships to honor the 19th Century "gathering to Zion" of European converts to the Church, concluded the Scandinavian portion of its two-month voyage Aug. 15 with the departure of six of the ships from this major seaport, Norway's capital city.
Passengers on board the Sea Trek flag ship, Statsraad Lehmkuhl, displayed flags of many nations as they sang "God Be with You Till We Meet Again." As the hymn for their morning devotional, they chose "Come, Come, Ye Saints," the hymn written by William Clayton on the plains of Iowa in 1846 that became the anthem for the entire gathering.
Since the commencement of the voyage from Esbjerg, Denmark, on Aug. 7, the Sea Trek flotilla has visited the cities of Copenhagen, Denmark, Aug. 9-10; Gothenburg, Sweden, Aug. 11-13; and Oslo, Aug. 14-16.
Two of the ships, the Mir and the Sorlandet, departed from Gothenburg on Aug. 12, bound for Greenock, Scotland, and Liverpool, England. The ships from Oslo are sailing to Hamburg, Germany; and Hull England. The entire fleet arrives in Portsmouth, England, on Aug. 24, where four of the ships will undertake the crossing of the Atlantic, with a scheduled arrival in New York Harbor on Oct. 4.
In each city so far, the agenda has been somewhat the same: an arrival ceremony, tents with exhibits about the gathering, computers for doing family history research, and varied entertainment from professional musicians who are Latter-day Saints assembled specifically for the Sea Trek event.
The most visible feature of the dockside events has been an elaborate and dazzling fireworks display choreographed to music orchestrated and performed by prominent LDS artist Kurt Bestor. In Gothenburg, an estimated 280,000 people witnessed the free display, which concludes with a resounding arrangement of "Come, Come, Ye Saints." In Oslo, as in other cities, the display was received with loud cheering and a cacophony of ship's horns competing with one another.
"Saints on the Seas," an original dramatic musical production was staged first at Copenhagen City Hall, then at the Opera House in Gothenburg and at the KoncertHaus in Oslo. In every case, it has been met with two prolonged standing ovations.
The production endeavors to recount the story of the gathering through the media of authentic journal accounts of emigrant Latter-day Saints enhanced by symphonic, choral and choir music. In the Scandinavian cities, the Estonia National Orchestra has provided the instrumental music, with the Tivoli Choir in Copenhagen and the Choir Lodola in Gothenburg and Oslo.
In one particularly poignant moment of the production, a mother's authentic journal account is given, telling of her grief over the death at sea of her young son. She asks permission from the captain to retain his little body until daylight, when it must be given over to the ocean depths. A song, "If You Were Mine Completely," reflects her understanding that the boy who has come through her is not completely hers, that he must return to a heavenly home where she will one day be together again with him.
The dockside events are only part of the story of Sea Trek. The other part, of course, is life on board the sailing ships. Participants have had to cope with communal sleeping arrangements, cramped quarters, little available space for personal belongings, sea sickness and, on at least one of the ships, a case of mild food poisoning.
These things they are more than willing to put up with. In fact, four individuals, finding that the conditions on board the ship to which they were assigned were not quite rugged enough, asked to trade places with some on board a ship in which the conditions were even less comfortable, this so they could better understand and appreciate the emigrant experience.
Sea Trek voyagers have hailed from many parts of the United States and several countries, particularly Scandinavia, with more Swedes and Norwegians coming on board as the ships progressed.
The circumstances have seemed similar to the scene described by emigrant Frederick Piercy: "In spite of an amusing confusion of languages and backgrounds, they managed very well, and most heartily helped each other in all kinds of work. The passengers were divided into districts with a president and two counselors in each district. There were daily meetings to discuss conditions and receive counsel."
The Sea Trek participants have been organized similarly. On the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, for example, two Salt Lake Institute of Religion instructors, John Peterson and Paul Thomas Smith, had roles somewhat analogous to the ship presidents of old, though neither man has seemed willing to assume that title for himself. But they organized the passengers into three wards that coincided with the ship "watches" organized by the ship sergeant. Over each of those "wards," they appointed a president.
Lon Sadler of the South Cottonwood 7th Ward, Salt Lake South Cottonwod Stake, said serving in that role gave him something of an understanding of what it would be to make the crossing and be responsible not just for oneself or one's own family, but for a host of people, seeing that they were getting proper food, health care and other necessities. He said he also understands better the wisdom of having the emigrant companies so tightly organized, with an agent of the Church at every point to receive the emigrants and see to their needs.
Music and entertainment have been an integral part of shipboard life then and now. On the Westmoreland, for example, that sailed in April 1857, were three clarinets, six violins, two harmonicas and one flute.
The description is uncannily similar to Enoch Train, the eclectic band of musicians that has been part of Sea Trek dockside entertainment. Formed three years ago, with the challenge to find a way to perform the hymns of Zion in a way that had never been done before, Enoch Train seems tailor-made for Sea Trek, right down to the name, which is borrowed from one of the early sailing ships that carried Latter-day Saint emigrants.
On board the Statsraad Lehmkuhl for the first two legs of Sea Trek 2001, Enoch Train staged impromptu concerts every evening, sometimes being joined by youngsters whom band members had tutored during the day. One evening they were joined by Hakan Valle, the ship's sergeant, who regaled the passengers with several sea shanties.
There are other parallels, including the eagerness of most the ship's passengers to respond to the invitation of ship officers to climb the rigging and get a mast view of the ocean.
In classes on board ship, Brother Peterson read an account from Wilford Woodruff from May 10, 1849, in which he and fellow apostles Heber C. Kimball and Orson Pratt "undertook to climb the rigging of the ship. I found it required some presence of mind and caution to go up and down the rigging of a ship, as she was wagging in the air."
