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John Banks Family - Miracles on the Ship Argo

Many Saints from the British Isles chose to join their fellow Saints in Utah.  Their first leg of the journey was to board a ship.  One such ship, the Argo set sail from Liverpool to New Orleans on January 10, 1850.  Among the passengers were 402 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Jeter Clinton was their captain and he appointed five counselors to assist him. Of the five counselors, two of them were our ancestors:  John Banks and Harrison Burgess.  John was the great-great grandfather of Merril Burgess.  He and his wife Ellen, and two living children – a daughter named Merab and a son named Franklin - and were immigrating to the States.  Harrison Burgess was finishing a mission to the British Isles and was returning home. We are indebted to him as he swung by Winter Quarters and picked up his young nephew George Martin Burgess, another of Merril’s great-great grandfathers, and took him to Utah.  The Banks and the Burgess lines finally joined many years later when Merril’s parents, Myron Herbert Burgess and Margaret Banks married.

Like most voyages, the journey was wrought with difficulties and blessings.  Passengers ranged from an infant who was born the night before the voyage to elderly men and women.  During the voyage babies were born, sickness and seasickness abounded, and a few passengers passed away. However, this particular passage was also blessed with miracles.

Harrison Burgess, one of the counselors, recorded one such miracle. “We sailed along quite comfortably until the twenty-sixth of the month [January] when a terrible storm arose. About two o'clock in the afternoon the sea began to swell and show its power, and the vessel lay first on one side and then on the other. Water came in upon us on both sides of our ship. We lost our sails and yard-arms, and the chains in the rigging of the ship broke.  In the evening, when everything looked most dismal, our president called together his counselors and all joined in prayer to the Lord to cause the winds to cease. Scarcely had the brethren ceased their supplications when there was a calm, so sudden in fact that the captain and the officers of the ship were greatly surprised, and they came and inquired of us how it was that we felt so happy and gay amid the great danger through which we had just passed. They could not realize that the Lord removed all fear from the hearts of his faithful Saints when they were endeavoring to do their duty.”1

The storm was just a minor incident compared to what happened on the evening of Saturday, March 2nd. The day had been beautiful as the ship sailed towards the Gulf of Mexico.  “The sun set at 7 o’clock, the night dark, though by times the stars shone in their countless numbers in the heavens, about 9 o’clock the wind arose, and blew us 9 knots.”2

Since the weather was hot, “the Saints were on the captain’s deck, or poop, for cool air.”3  The captain was “spinning yarns”4 and thus entertaining the passengers.

“At past 9 o'clock…it seemed as if the Lord had respect for his people, for the heavens seemed to open, and a chain of fire descended on to the earth, as some sort of a token. It took the attention of the Saints and as they stood gazing on the heavens Lo! another star shot forth…”5

Other passengers described the light as “ something like a large ball of fire [that] seemed to fall from the clouds”6 “a flash of lightning bright as day,” 7“a heavenly light, which for few seconds illuminated the surroundings”8 and “a most remarkable phenomena that was a light shining in the air.”9

Three passengers recorded that this miraculous light caused the captain to become aware of the fact that they were on a collision course with land.

Thanks to this light the captain’s “attention was drawn to notice land which lay directly before the ship & in less than 10 minutes the [ship] would have dashed to pieces.”10

“Some of our passengers eyes followed the ball of fire until it fell and that ball of fire showed the our passengers the land; Had it not been for that circumstance we must have ran onto the shore as the ship was standing head on to the land... I then thought I could have thrown a stone from off the ship onto shore and I could plainly see the terrible white breakers on the shore although it was a dark night.”11

Lo! another star shot forth To the surprise of all, we found ourselves running aground against the Rocks of the Pine Isles.”12

Note: The Isle of Pines, as it was called in 1850, was a Cuban Island just south of Cuba.13  

Upon seeing the land the captain took immediate control of the situation.

“He ran to the wheel, turned the ship long side, & then called the seamen from their berths. With great perseverance they managed to clear the land but only to find out that he was again deceived for instead of our having cleared the Cape, we found ourselves about (12 o'clock) running into another point of land which struck into the sea. The ship had immediately turned round and it was found that we were in 27 feet of water & ship taking 17 feet, found it very difficult to keep out from the land as the wind blew directly onto the shore. When we turned ship the storm appeared to be but a short stone throw from land the moon shining we could see the breakers dashing against the shore many yards high which formed a snow white ridge as for as the eye could trace. They turned the ship several times to clear the point, but could not succeed till towards day break when we cleared & sailed gaily around. (Thanks be to our God) it was a most miraculous escape.

Most of the brethren were on deck & found plenty to do in turning the sails & getting the anchor ready. Several sisters came up but was soon ordered down again. About 9 a.m. Sunday morning, we lost sight of land that part of Cuba to be very low which accounts for their not seeing it before dark.”14

Harrison Burgess described the event as following:

“All hands were called on deck and soon the Saints like brave sailors, hauled at the ropes &c to get ourselves clear from this awful situation, soon was the yardarms squared and on we rode, …but, we found ourselves running into the Cape St. Antonio, on the Isle of Cuba, and the danger was so great that we were obliged to haul out our cable, ready for the last extremity but through the prayers of the Saints, mixed with their works, we once more rode through the waters of the Lord.”15

Just 4 days before their arrival on March 8th, Harrison Burgess wrote a couple of interesting tidbits in his journal.

“Tues. 4th Elder John Banks withdrew himself from the office of counselor, but did not give any particular reason for so doing, and Elder John Haliday was elected in his place. At night the ship  hailed us take back a stowed away nigger age 21 a fine young man, run away from the Saxon, a steam packet New Orleans.”16

In a few days more we landed at the mouth of the Mississippi River, where we had a busy time in fishing up buckets of fresh water…The tug steamers came down the Mississippi to look for vessels that wanted to be tugged up to New Orleans. One came along and took us in tow. We got along for sometime until we came to a place I think they call the bar. The old ship Argo went aground and all the steaming and tugging she could do had no effect. There we stuck and had to wait until the tide came in. When it came in, we got off the bar amidst the cheering of all hands.17

1Burgess, Harrison, Sketch of a Well-Spent Life. http://forefamilies.blogspot.com/p/of-well-spent-life-by-harrison-burgess.html

2Burgess, Harrison, A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF HARRISON BURGESS, THE SON OF WILLIAM AND VIOLATY BURGESS, http://burgess.forefamilies.com/harrison.html

3Ibid.

4McKell, Robert, Autobiography of Robert McKell, https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/mii/account/71

5Burgess, Harrison, A Short Sketch.

6Dunford, George,  Reminiscences and Journal of George Dunford, https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/mii/account/70?scandinavia=on&europe=on&keywords=george+dunford&sweden=on&netherlands=on&mii=on

7McKell, Robert, Autobiography.

8Sister Jackson, quoted by Junius F. Wells, The Contributor: Representing the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of the Latter-day Saints, Volume 13

9Margetts, Richard Bishop, Diary of Richard Bishop Margetts, https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/mii/account/73

10Ibid.

11Dunford, George, Reminiscences.

12Burgess, Harrison, A Short Sketch.

13Isla de la Juventud, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_de_la_Juventud  Wikipedia

This island’s name was changed to Isla de la Juventud in 1978.

14Margetts, Richard Bishop, Diary.

15Burgess, Harrison, A Short Sketch.

16Ibid.

17McKell, Robert, Autobiography