In 1914, Orson Douglas Romney (1860-1941, and grandson of Ellen Briggs Douglas Parker) was returning from his service as mission president in New Zealand aboard the S.S. Seydlitz, in the company of five young elders. His letter written en route from Ceylon to a friend in Salt Lake City read, in part,
Many friends we have made on the boat. We never were so strongly convinced before that example meant so much as it has on this vessel, and the six Mormon elders will long be remembered by officers and passengers for gentlemanly behavior and good conduct. Don’t think I am boasting, for I only speak of it because of the great joy it gives me in seeing our boys (Elders) acting so nicely although out sight-seeing and circumnavigating the globe.
He enclosed a photograph of himself and some of the missionaries aboard the ship at Ceylon, and a note received from another Seydlitz passenger, a woman:
Mid Indian Ocean, S.S. Seydlitz,
Feb. 6th, 1914.Dear Mr. Romney:
Being an American I feel proud in witnessing the splendid example you and your dear boys present to the cosmopolitan gathering on this steamer.
Allow me to wish you unlimited success in your noble work.
This is nice to hear at any time, of course, but I imagine it was especially welcome to Church leaders who, at that time, too often had to deal with elders whose ocean crossings were accompanied by reports that one or more had not lived up to the standards of behavior expected of missionaries. (I have no specific illustration to give this morning; it is simply an observation I have made recently while reading a great deal of early 20th century mission correspondence.)
UPDATE:
As so often happens, a reader — this time (as often before), Mark B. — provide information that vastly improves the original post. Here’s a photograph of the Seydlitz (and that’s the correct spelling), and an advertisement from 1913, published in a New Zealand paper, with some data that would have been important to O.D. Romney. Thanks, Mark.
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I had wondered what missionaries returning from New Zealand were doing in a ship that landed in Ceylon–until the last line of Pres. Romney’s note, where he mentioned that they were “sight-seeing and circumnavigating the globe.” Those were, indeed, the days!
It reminds me of looking at the Pan Am route map (presumably after I was already on a plane between Tokyo and Los Angeles, since I’m sure that I didn’t see it on my non-existent computer on the non-existent Internet) and seeing one line across the vastness of Asia marking a flight from Tokyo to Moscow, and thinking how interesting it might have been to return home from my mission in those Cold War days by flying westward. But, alas, that didn’t happen.
I wonder if they’ve ever considered calling missionaries just to travel around on cruise ships.
I was reading about Noah Rogers, an early LDS missionary in Tahiti and apparently the first LDS missionary to circumnavigate the globe. At the end of the 130-day return voyage, he baptized two other passengers in Philadelphia. Four months at sea with no way for get more than a hundred yards from Elder Rogers would give ample opportunity to hear the gospel and be converted.
So maybe Carol is on to something …
Several of the ships in that list of departures were sister ships of a class that North German Lloyd used in the Australia–Europe trade. They were called the Generals Class, as they were named after famous German generals. Why not famous German admirals? Because there really weren’t any–something Kaiser Wilhelm II was trying to change in the years preceding World War I.
The Scharnhorst was about 4% larger than the Seydlitz, and it carried up to 2160 passengers and 170 crew. That would suggest that the Seydlitz could have carried about 2,030 passengers. It looks as if it would be crowded!
Carol’s comment reminded me of this internet suggestion.
Interesting post, Ardis, and it’s great to see Mark’s extra images and read his details about the ships.
Also, that’s a great story from John Mansfield!