QUOTE: “Now these vessels were so constructed that when furious winds should blow upon the face of the great deep, and the waves should roll mountains high they could without imminent danger plunge beneath the waves, and be brought up again to the surface of the water during tremendous hurricanes and storms. Now to prepare them against these contingencies, and that they might have fresh air for the benefit of the elephants, cureloms or mammoths and many other animals, that perhaps were in them, as well as the human beings they contained, the Lord told them how to construct them in order to receive air, that when they were on the top of the water, which-ever side up their vessels happened to be, it mattered not; they were so constructed that they could ride safely, though bottom upwards and they could open their air holes that happened to be uppermost.” -Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, vol. 12, p. 340. [source]
COMMENTARY: If I were going to travel 344 days in such conditions, I’d worry about bringing enough food and water, about food spoilage and spillage, about adequate ventilation and sanitation, and oh, I dunno, about being squished by a mammoth when the boat flipped. But what do I know? I’m just another apostate.
