Elizabeth Stock

Stock Family Voyage to America in 1860

John Stock could be called a self-made man. He was born in 1820, the same year his parents arrived at the Cape Colony of South Africa from England. His father died when he was seven, leaving him with his mother and younger brother to survive on the rough African frontier. At age 13 he apprenticed himself to a Dutch tanner and later entered the lucrative fur trade. By 1844, the year he married Jane Adams, he owned three tanneries and had invested in several whaling ships and also in race horses. Ten years later he and Jane had seven children and a lovely home in Port Elizabeth. The first Mormon missionaries arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in 1853. Facing fierce opposition, they made a small number of converts and traveled east to Port Elizabeth. Sometime in 1854 they met John and Jane Stock, who were baptized in February, 1855. The Stock residence became a center of activity for recent converts. John tried without success to convert a friend named Robert Bodily--an English immigrant who had moved 40 miles away to establish a large cattle ranch. Jane Bodily was an avid Bible student, who listened to John's message attentively but could not be convinced. In 1857 John sent the Elders to visit the Bodily family. Later that year Robert invited John, who was then President of the Port Elizabeth Branch, to come out and baptize him, Jane, their three sons, and some of the ranch hands. Thus the Bodily family became John Stock's converts as well as particular friends. The restored gospel message included a call to gather to Zion, then located in the Rocky Mountains of North America. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean posed a considerable challenge for the South African Saints, even those with the means to afford it. The local ship owners conspired to refuse passage to members of the reviled sect. John Stock and Charles Roper, another wealthy member, solved the problem by purchasing a small ship, the Unity. They felt sure the Unity could sail as far as England, and in a test voyage in November 1855 it carried a group of Saints, including Roper and his wife, to London. Upon its return John sent it on another test run, more heavily laden with cargo, to see if it could endure a longer voyage. Unfortunately, it was lost at sea—a large financial loss for Brothers Stock and Roper, and a setback for any further emigration plans. In 1860 the Mormon embargo had ended and the Stock family was ready to leave for Zion. There were now eight children. Elizabeth, my great grandmother, was 12 years old. Jane's daughter, Mary Ann, had recently married, so son-in-law William Stokes was now part of the family. William had spent 12 years working on a sailing ship, so long voyages were nothing new to him. The Stocks, along with a few dozen other Saints, including the Bodily family, booked passage on the Alacrity under Captain Charles Cooper. On April 5 they sailed from Port Elizabeth, headed for Boston. They stopped briefly at Cape Town, about 500 miles east on the Cape of Good Hope. In the first few days many experienced seasickness, but before long everyone had their "sea legs." The next stop, 17 days and 2500 miles into the South Atlantic Ocean, was the island of Saint Helena, the British colony where Napoleon had been exiled in 1815 until his death in 1821. Here the Alacrity took on food and water, and here aboard ship Sister Bodily delivered a baby girl, Lucy Matilda. Robert Bodily Jr. had just turned 16, and he later wrote about his experiences at sea. His is the only known account of the voyage. All the food was cooked by the ship's steward. It included such staples as salted beef, pork and beans, potatoes, vegetables and a daily ration of sea biscuit or hard tack, made of flour, water and salt, which were stored in barrels. "The sea biscuits," writes Bodily, "were about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and the size of a plate. They are very hard until dunked in milk, coffee or tea; they resemble soda crackers, only much large...