[Wilford Woodruff] 16th + I left my family & friends in Liverpool & took the Steemer Victorie for Carlisle at 4 oclock in the afternoon. As soon as we went out of the dock I discoverd the boat was newly Painted so that one could not sit down in any place from the stem to the stern of the boat without carrying the paint with him the whole bigness of the place he sat in or touched. And as the sea began to be rough I found it necessary to get some place to lie down & as the last & ownly resort I paid 2/ shillings for the use of a bunk among the sailors on the fore castle over the bow for the night.
I went below to take my bed among the Sailors which was a small confined place. I had no sooner gone below than I was inveloped in a Stench the most Horrid of any thing I ever experianced. It arose from the cargo which consisted of goano A kind of dung dug out of the earth brought to this country to put on to land. It is supposed to have origionally been birds dung but the worst die pot I ever saw was plesant in comparrison to this stench. I lay down but my stomach was immediately so filled with the stench that it made me as sick as Death.
I immediately commenced vomiting which continued for five hours. At times I gaged upon an empty stomach untill I strained myself to such a degree that blood run out of my nose almost a stream. I suffered much through the night & the sailors smoked their pipes & filled the hole with tobaco smoke. Though this was nacious to me it was much better than the stink that arose from the cargo. And in addition to this the seas were breaking fore & aft over the boat & the boat pitching badly. This with breathing the sent of the paint guano & tobaco smoke made me vomit to that degree that my sufferings were great & I thought it the most horrid night I ever spent on the water.
In the morning I crawled out into the air on deck but felt vary week & feeble. Could scarcely walk. Distance to Port Carlisle 190 miles.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
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