Sea Trek 2001
Sea Trek 2001 was a commemorative sea voyage marking the 150th anniversary of the journey of many converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to America. Some 85,000 Latter-day Saint emigrants in the 19th century came from Europe and the British Isles to North America. Sea Trek 2001 was to honor these emigrants by recreating their experience.
The celebration was privately organized in two stages.The first stage encompassed a gathering on August 7. Eight sailing ships were rented: the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, Christian Radich, and Sorlandet from Norway; the Europa, Swan fan Makkum, and Antigua from Denmark; the Mir from Russia; and the Mary-Anne from Germany.
A pre-trek ceremony was held in Ribe, Denmark's oldest town and the location of the beginnings of Christianity in Denmark. There, Elder Ronald A. Rasband, then of the Seventy, and first counselor in the Europe Central Area presidency, offered a blessing on the ships and journey.[1]
For the gathering segment, these eight ships sailed to various ports: Copenhagen, Denmark; Gothenberg, Sweden; Oslo, Norway; Greenock, Scotland; Hamburg, Germany; Hull, Liverpool; and Portsmouth, England—ports where Latter-day Saint emigrants departed.
Visitors were allowed to tour these historic ships at each port at free events that included maritime exhibits on Mormon migration, online ancestral research demonstrations, live entertainment.
Approximately 1,400 boarders paid for passage between different ports and durations at sea. Some traveled the entire trip. Most traveled to honor an ancestor who had emigrated by ship. The event also gave them an opportunity to visit ancestral farmland and discover or meet distant relatives.
The second stage, called the crossing, began on August 27 with three ships—the Christian Radich, the Europa, and the Lehmkuhl—sailing from Portsmouth to the Canary Islands and then on to Bermuda and finally to New York.
The approximately 250 passengers were divided into four-hour watches each 12 hours. They steered at the helm, served lookout and safety watches, scrubbed the quarters, trimmed, hauled in, and raised sails, polished brass, and coiled rope. The Church News shared some of the experiences of the travelers.[2]
The final arrival on October 4, 2001, in New York Harbor was to be a celebration at Madison Square Garden that included fireworks, a concert, and exhibits; however, the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, precluded the events.
In early 2002, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, through a third party affiliated with the Church, purchased the $468,000 debt owed by the privately owned Sea Trek Foundation. The foundation owed money for three Norwegian tall ships that participated in the crossing. In turn, the Church was to sue the foundation to recover the debt.
- The threat of suit became public in January when newspapers in Norway reported that representatives of the ships — the "Statsraad Lehmkuhl," "Christian Radich" and "Sorlandet" — were angry at Sea Trek, Sadleir, and the church because the debt had not been satisfied and arrangements for payment had not been made.
- Under the headline "Faith in the Mormons lands Tall Ships in court," a story in the Jan. 22 edition of Aftenposten Norway said a "messy court battle" was imminent "after a group backed by the Mormons in America failed to pay for its charter of the graceful old vessels last year.”
- "[Church spokesman Dale Bills] has told the press on several occasions over the past year that Sea Trek was a private venture, and from the beginning the church declined to participate financially with the organization. But organizers tied their celebration so closely to the church — re-creating the voyage of its early immigrants, enlisting participation from LDS historians, musicians and writers, and working with regional LDS leaders in foreign lands — that few people could make the distinction between the private nature of the enterprise and church sponsorship." . . .
- The church statement quoted Espen Amundsen, a church spokesman in Olso, Norway, saying the church recognizes the tall ships as a treasure in that country and their important role in preserving and commemorating Norway's great seafaring heritage.
- "For these reasons, we have intervened to help arrange for the payment of the expenses of the tall ship foundations left unsatisfied by Sea Trek and Mr. Sadleir," Amundsen said.[3]
The representative of the tall ships said in a press release, "We are very grateful to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its assistance in helping to arrange for the satisfaction of this debt, which was incurred by Sea Trek Foundation and Mr. Sadleir. We recognize that Sea Trek was a private venture not sponsored by the church and that the church had no legal responsibility for it."[4]
