175 years ago today - Dec 11, 1844

[Apostle Wilford Woodruff]

11th Wednesday Wind changed to the east. Commenced blowing a gale. It was head wind. We were drove under bare poles through the day & evening. It made us all dreadful sick. The sea was vary rough & piled up like hills. The gale increased untill about 9 oclock in the evening it appeared as though it must tear the yards from the mast. We kneeled before the Lord & Prayed unitedly that the Lord would cause the gale to seease & the wind to change that we might go forward & not backward & in a little time after the wind instantly seeased & finally changed into the South West which gave us fair wind.

[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]