Film captures Saints' sail from N.Y. to San Francisco

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Though some historians credit their voyage as the first by American families from New York to San Francisco around the tip of South America, relatively few Latter-day Saints know anything about passengers on the 19th-century ship Brooklyn.About 230 LDS converts made the six-month, 20,000-mile voyage in 1846, becoming the largest group of Americans to date that would settle in what would soon become San Francisco, according to filmmakers. Participants in the annual Mormon History Association conference this week learned details of the journey during the group’s opening plenary session Thursday night, viewing a documentary about the Brooklyn and its passengers.''Forgotten Voyage: The Mormon Sea Trek That Sparked the Gold Rush'' produced by New York filmmaker Scott Tiffany, tells the story of the LDS faithful who braved the treacherous waters around Cape Horn before construction of the Panama Canal. This year’s MHA conference theme involves LDS history in California.After losing 10 passengers and a crew member at sea, the group made it to what was then Mexican territory, after seeking to leave the United States in search of the religious freedom that had eluded members after persecution and the murder of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith in 1844. They were shocked to find U.S. troops at their destination, trying to establish an American presence.Less than two years after their arrival, six Latter-day Saints were among the first to discover gold at Sutter’s Mill, and the leader of the Brooklyn group — Sam Brannan — subsequently helped spark the California Gold Rush by publishing news of the discovery on a printing press he had brought on the voyage.Brannan and his group originally believed they were preparing for the arrival of LDS leader Brigham Young and nearly 10,000 Latter-day Saints, who migrated across the Great Plains and arrived in Salt Lake City beginning in 1847.  When Brannan journeyed east to meet with Young, he tried to persuade him the group should soldier on to California, but the majority of LDS immigrants remained in the Utah Territory.Brannan and a few other Brooklyn voyagers stayed in California, making and then losing huge fortunes as a result of the gold rush, but 111 of the passengers eventually made their way to Salt Lake City, according to Richard Bullock, former president of the Ship Brooklyn Association in Utah.Bullock has written 2,000 pages about the history of the Brooklyn and the lives of its LDS passengers. The Ship Brooklyn Association was formed in 1996 in Utah after the sesquicentennial celebration of the LDS group’s arrival in San Francisco, he said.The documentary film won the award for Best Documentary at the Salt Lake City Film Festival in 2002.  For information, see the web site at www.forgottenvoyage.com.