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Coronet:
1908 Circumnavigation
Coronet Timeline 1906 - 1908
Timeline Sources:
The Golden Light Upon the Two Americas by Frank W. Sandford 1974
GLTA
The Sublimity of Faith by Frank S. Murray 1981
SF
Coronet, Conquering and to Conquer by Capt. Timothy Murray, 1998
CCC
Fair Clear and Terrible by Shirley Nelson 1989
FCT
A Calendar of Events 1907-1908 pub. by The Kingdom
KCE
12/3/06 “The Thirty” are selected
12/4/06 Coronet leaves Beirut for Cyprus, blown off course by a storm
Wilmot Thompkins saves
Everett Knight’s life in the storm
12/12/06 Frank Hopkins dies of fever, Coronet returns to Beirut for burial
12/25 - 12/31/1906 The Thirty are in Jerusalem for year end convention
1/6/1907 Second departure for circumnavigation. Coronet leaves Jaffa for Alexandria
1/08/1907 The Arrow shot forth from Zion (from KCE)
1/09/1907 Coronet weighs anchor for
Alexandria p398SF
1/17/07 - 3/08/07 Coronet in Alexandria,
Egypt (from KCE)
1-27-07 The Kingdom leaves the Holy Land for
America. Although they had left Rockland, Maine on the same day back in August, the speedy
Coronet had outpaced Kingdom getting there, Kingdom having
arrived in November. She rejoins Coronet later on in the year in the
Carribbean. CPJ
2/28/07 The Thirty bury Wilmot Thompkins in Alexandria, who contracted smallpox while in
port. Coronet sails for Tripoli, arrives, turns about, and returns to El Arish,
where Mr. S. decides to begin writing a series of books entitled his “Davidic
Library” in order to secure Beulah’s restoration. The first book is
entitled “The Golden Light on the South Country” written March - April,
1907. “The Nazirite Country”, vol. 2 of the series, was begun. Many
trips made between Coronet and Jerusalem during this period.
3/08/07 "The Kings
Own" (from KCE)
3/28/07 Two lambs are purchased ashore. One is slaughtered & its blood poured over the
side for dramatic illustration of Passover feast. The other ultimately is kept as a pet.
The Passover Feast is restored.
4/28/07 Second Passover feast, now restored, celebrated in Jerusalem with the Jerusalem
household.
5/15/1907 Feast of Pentecost celebrated on board Coronet, and restored.
5/19/1907 Feast of Weeks observed off Haifa on board Coronet.
7/21/07 Eli Brown chosen to replace Wilmot Thompkins. Mr. Sandford is encouraged over his
own faith and “whiteness” of the Coronet Company.
7/24/1907 At 4 pm, Mr. S. hears “Make Ready For The Great Deep”. Coronet
sets sail from Mt. Carmel (from KCE)
7/25/07 The Shekinah Glory invited aboard.
“Wonderful to relate there is a distinct consciousness that the invitation is
accepted” (diary of Bertram Dustin.)
7/26/07 Coronet off Cyprus; "sounded horns"
7/30/07 Coronet off Cape Kheldonia, Turkey. “We take all this land for God
in prayer. The gospel was really sent to them.” (diary of Bertram Dustin.)
7/31/07 Band plays “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story” on deck to approaching
steamer.
“We feel sure that the steamer was reached through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
(diary of Bertram Dustin.)
8/1/07 Coronet off Rhodes, Greece
8/4/07 Coronet south of Crete, becalmed, then hit by sudden squall, tearing sails
and breaking rigging.
8/6/07 Coronet "sounds horns"
over Crete
8/14/07 Coronet in Valetta, Malta. Unity is once more restored again among the
30.
8/17/07 While at Malta, Mr. S. writes,
“A time of divine refreshing”
8/22/07 Coronet departs Malta for Sicily
8/25/07 Coronet departs Sicily,
"sounds horns" over Italy - Holy Rome (from KCE)
8/30/07 Coronet in Bay of Naples, prayer for Italy, circumnavigates Capri for the
first time for Jehovah
9/2/07 Coronet circumnavigates Capri for
Jesus
9/9/07 FWS determines to circumnavigate the “throne of the Ceasars (Isle of Capri)
three times, symbolizing the Trinity; twice on Coronet, once by rowboat. He and his five
children (ages 1 - 9) together with Miss Whittom (Queen of the Sea) and Mrs. Perry tackle
the challenge. They visit the famous “Blue Grotto”, of which Mr. S. later wrote,
“It was a time of sheer delight.”
9/10/07 4 a.m. Twenty-seven men, women and children in 2 boats row the gospel into Rome,
25 miles up the Tiber River. They reach the outskirts of the Eternal City at dusk,
row across town and turn to on the far side in the dark. Later, as the city disappears
behind them, FWS cries “Farewell Paul, we’ll carry your gospel to the ends of
the earth!” They reach Coronet at 3:30 a.m. on 9/11 and weigh anchor at 4 a.m. for
Sardinia.
9/14/07 Coronet off Sardinia
9/18/07 Coronet "sounds
horns" over Sardinia and "all the islands of the Gentiles" (from KCE)
9/25/07 Sounded horns over Spain
9/29/07 Mediterranean Sea restored
10/2-9/07 Coronet off Gibraltar. New sails acquired, materials purchased and new
white uniforms made for the crew; boat painted, deck houses varnished. Lester McKenzie
(age 24) made Captain. Mr. S. wrote:
“The seven days in the presence of God have thrown a breath of
holiness about the vessel and those on board - holiness that seems like the hoar frost -
everywhere. A captain after God’s own heart comes forth from his place of prayer to
take the wheel. A unity, marvelous beyond natural comprehension, possesses the band of
humble believers who are about to take their lives in their hands and go forth in the
Master’s name.”
10/9/07 Coronet enters the Straits of Gibraltar
10/12/07 “Columbus Day”, Coronet off Los Palos, Spain, Christopher Columbus home
port.
10/17/07 Atlantic Ocean restored
10/20/07 Canaries sighted, "horns
sounded"
10/21/07 Coronet drops anchor in Las Palmas, Canary Islands
10/22/07 Cable to Shiloh directing Kingdom for rendezvous in the West indies.
10/24/07 Seven hours of prayer for the Canary Islands. Canary Islands restored.
10/27/07 Coronet leaves Las Palmas, Canary Islands.
11/23/07 Coronet arrives at San Salvador, and finds Kingdom waiting with
Capt. Moses & 47 friends and family members.
11/24/07 Man’s dominion over fish, fowl, beasts and all nature restored
12/9/07 Both ships in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
12/12/07 Mr. S. conducts his own “Sermon on the Mount” overlooking the harbor in
St. Thomas. After the service he and several others ascend the mouintain and at the top,
in prayer, he proclaims Christ’s salvation over North America from her Arctic Islands
to the Isthmus of Panama. As they descend, Mr. S. declares in David-esque fashion,
“I’ve got North America by the hair of the head!”
12/25/07 Christmas in the Virgin Islands, a baptism Christmas evening in a seaside cove.
(who?)
12/25 - 1/1/08 Year end convention held on “Anointing”
12/27/07 Entire Company anointed for a holy priesthood, along with the two rooms on the
upper deck of the Kingdom, the “Holy Place” and the “Most Holy”.
Henceforth these rooms were reserved only to the spiritually qualified. Subsequently the
entire Kingdom is anointed by those just commissioned by Jehovah’s permission to be a
holy priesthood.
1/2/08 Hidden in
"Alpha" (from KCE)
1/15/08 Kingdom and Coronet part company. Eli Brown returns to Shiloh on
board Kingdom along with the new harp, which has proved unsatisfactory. Ralph
Anderson takes Eli Brown’s place.
1/22/08 Mr. Sandford delivers the awe inspiring divine message “Everlasting
Righteousness” for South America.
1/28/08 Orinoco River (Venezuela and portions of Columbia) watershed blessed with prayers
of restoration. Mr. S.’s daughter Esther’s birthday
2/7/08 Coronet cruises east along the equator. Son John’s birthday, the
company spends the day in prayer for his life. In “The Golden Light Upon
the Two Americas” , FWS expresses his deep concern for his family’s health
regarding the equator and sunstroke, but excellant weather (temparate) attends them
through the crossing.
“Every mile we have sailed we have “removed the covering cast over the face
of all the earth.” We know this! We do not think it, nor believe it. We are
absolutely certain of the fact. More than that, God is absolutely certain that such are
the facts of the case.”
3/8/08 Coronet drops anchor in Rio de Janeiro harbor.
3/10/08 The Captain of the navy vessel Chicago furnishes Coronet with
charts of Cape Horn and calibrates their chronometer. Coronet takes on supplies.
3/13/08 Coronet leaves Rio for Montevideo, Uruguay
3/22/08 Coronet arrives in Montevideo, Mr. S. comes down with pneumonia.
4/7/08 Coronet leaves Montevideo & experiences two weeks of good weather and
sailing. No hope of human aide for the next 2700 miles.
“we came like a battleship down the coast, making [a speed of]
12 knots a day after day.
Everett Knight’s diary
4/14/08 First storm hits. Never before had Mr. Perry seen a barometer fall so far so
rapidly. Charles Hughey is lashed to the helm, to avoid being washed over.
The longboat on deck is damaged severly by the storm. Mr. S.’s
daughter Deborah (age 3) in fear asks her father. “Papa, are we going to drown?”
His answer, “How can we, darling, with Jesus on board?” Moments later he cries,
“I put the LAMB OF GOD into the teeth of that storm!” Instantly the
storm’s severity begins to diminish. The storm continues, however, almost
unabatedly for the next 30 days.
4/15/08 The First anniversary of the Restored Feast of Passover is kept. They meet
together every midnight for the next seven days.
Sandford wrote ... “In tones of gravity we discuss the facts of
our danger; of the impossibility of rounding this point in any natural way; of the
possibility of doing so in a supernatural way. There is no unbelief suggested in the word
“possibility”; but ah, this is not the night for talk; when men face what we
face their words are few; but the few words are terribly earnest...”
4/16-18/08 Spotty sunshine, though cold and windy. Lifeboat repaired, some sail mended.
4/19/08 Lester McKenzie wrote:
“Snow falling all day. Heavy seas heaving in from the south. Salt water thrown on
board as we pound into a heavy head-sea makes the work on deck very cold and
disagreeable.”
4/20/08 Sun appears. 50 miles east of Staten Island, 200 miles to Cape Horn.
4/21/08 Weather poor. Mr. S. reviews the life of Allen Gardiner, a missionary who worked
with the natives of Terre del Fuego in the 1850s. At noon their position indicated they
were in the Pacific, completeing Coronet’s fourth passage around the Horn. The band
plays “All Hail the Power”.
4/22/08 Mrs. Helen Sandford’s birthday. Weather foul, sea rough. She wrote...
“What a privilege it is for me to have my
forty-fourth birthday here off Cape Horn, a witness for Jesus at one of the uttermost
parts of the earth! It is cold - bitter cold, and we cannot stay on deck fifteen minutes,
though thoroughly wrapped up without being chilled through. Rain and sleet storms are
frequent and the sun scarcely ever is seen. Our perils are great and many. The waves are
high and turbulent and a strong current threatens to drive us on the jagged, iron rocks
along the coast.
Amid such surroundings I will invite you to
come below. In our cozy little home the children and all on board are doing their best to
make the birthday a happy one. It is a delight to be together - the father, mother, and
children, all of one heart.
Mr. S. restores the Pacific Ocean, and the band plays “All Hail the Power”.
4/23/08 Mr. Sandford, despite the collective wisdom of mariner’s lore, brings down an
albatross. Cook, the taxidermist prepared the quary immediately, and hung it in the
ceiling of the saloon.
In a sudden squall, the mainsail boom breaks loose. They manage to
retrieve it from hanging over the side, cut the broken piece off, and lash it down. At
Sydney, Australia it is properly repaired.
For the next three weeks the conditions vacillate from squall to calm
to gale and back again.
5/9/08 A Spanish steamer gives them their position via signal flags.
5/14/08 Coronet arrives in the Gulf of Penas, and anchors for the first time in
37 days. Mr. Sandford immediately names the spot “Harbor Beautiful” and the
abutting mountains “Mount Joy” and “Mount Gilead”. Rest and relaxation
were the order of the day, together with repairs, gear mending, washing clothes,
replenishing the water tanks and re-supplying the wood.
5/17/08 The company gathers on the beach to hear Mr. Perry deliver a sermon on “The
Good Shepherd”.
5/23/08 Coronet weighs anchor. Out in the Gulf of Penas and feeling weak, First
Mate Thomas Marshal calls for prayer. Prayer notwithstanding, Brights desease (a kidney
ailment) claims his life and Coronet comes about. They bury him on “Good
Shepherd Beach”, at “Harbour Beautiful”, where they linger for several more
days.
6/7/08 Coronet weighs anchor again.
6/20/08 After enduring two more weeks of rotten weather, Coronet puts in at
Concepcion, Chile, and cables home to Shiloh, informing them of Thomas Marshall’s
passing.
“Marshall dead, boom broken, life boat smashed, need three-thousand dollars, Jehovah
reigns.”
Shiloh wires back that a new $1000 Erard harp, a No.7 Louis XVI model awaits them in
Sydney, replete with gold leaf. Their cablegram included only $400, which was adequate to
fill present needs. Murray, in Sublimity of Faith, makes no mention of the harp
news at this time, but elaborates on the effort of faith made to ensure adequate supplies
and the Gospel’s delivery to South America. While anchored in Concepcion Bay, Mr S.
writes a 200 page book about the Bible in nine days, with the company gathered ‘round
and looking on.
7/4/08 Coronet leaves Concepcion and sails north for Valparaiso.
7/12/08 Coronet arrives in Valparaiso, drops off their mail, and leaves
immediately for Juan Fernandez, the isle which inspired Defoe’s Robinson Carusoe. a
300 mile trip west. A week is spent in exchanging kindnesses with the island population,
and another week is spent at the neighboring island of Mas-a Fuera. A party of 12 men,
with son John along, spend 5 days on the second island hunting 20 wild goats. Quoting
Murray,
“Mr. Sandford enjoyed himself hugely, bagging a sizable percentage of the total kill
and even shooting two goats with one bullet.”
7/31/08 Coronet leaves for Callao
8/9/08 St. Ambrose Island, uninhabited, the third in the cluster, the “Lonely
Isle”, is restored.
8/14/08 First glimpse of Peru
8/16/08 Coronet arrives in Lima, Peru, “The City of Kings”
8/22/08 Coronet company visits Pizarro’s cathedral. In Sandford’s “Golden
Light”, he admires Pizarro’s character by writing,
“Whatever one may feel about his (Pizarro’s) unscrupulous deeds one but cannot
admire such utter recklessness in conjunction with such absolute abandonment to the God of
his religion, especially when combined with such consumate skill as a general. No other
man of the world has ever moved me as this man in whose building I stand, save Cortez his
teacher. I owe them much. Stirred by his heroism, one feels able to dare and to do through
the troublous days ahead.”
The company seat themselves in the great cathedral and pray. As they do, they gradually
become aware that the blood of Christ has cleansed the building and made it acceptable to
God as a place of worship.
Mr. S. while in Callao, polishes off two more books, which are then mailed to Shiloh.
8/24/08 Subsequent to taking on more supplies, Coronet leaves Callao
8/26/08 Off Lake Lauricocha, they turn west and head out for the Marquesas Islands. While
underway, intercessory prayer is made for all lands north and south of them.
9/23/08 Coronet drops anchor in Resolution Bay.
9/30/08 Coronet leaves the Marquesas.
10/08/08 Tahiti sighted, but Coronet anchors at Murea.
10/17/08 Coronet circumnavigates Raratoga in the Cook Islands.
10/28/08 A short stop over at Niue. Mr. Sandford countermands the instructions of Mr.
Perry and bestows an act of kindness on a sick Englishman, providing him transportation to
a doctor on Tongatabu. While on board, he is cared and prayed for. By the time he arrives
at Tongatabu, he exhibits significant improvement.
10/30/08 The Tonga Islands are made. In the early hours of the morning, Coronet is
becalmed after the mainsail is torn and repaired. Subsequently it is learned that a reef,
not on the charts and hidden from view lay in their direct path.
11/2/08 Fiji Islands.
11/7/08 Two of the New Hebrides Islands are circled.
11/26/08 Thanksgiving Day - Sighted Australia
11/27/08 Coronet in Sydney. According to Murray, Nathan Harriman’s newspaper
reports had preceeded their arrival, and thus they were met with a cool reception. Though
reporters sought an interview, Mr. S. was not disposed to such an event but rather stayed
in his cabin and worked on his writings.
According to Shirley Nelson, there is no mention of Coronet’s
arrival or departure in the local press, but by sheer coincidence there are several
stories in the papers regarding a local business man also named Sandford in trouble with
the government. One paper, The Daily Telegram, does mention the troupe. Its
reporter seeking an interview with Sandford, was refused, as Murray also said. Put off by
Sandford’s refusal, he wires the States for more data. In response to his request, Harper’s
Weekly wires back the most bizarre tale yet of the movement’s doings, most
clearly fiction.
Coronet is given a spot to moor in a secluded cove with
wretched holding ground. She slips her anchor, drifting to within feet of grounding. They
needed a tugboat (with its accompanying fee) to pull them to safety.
The new $1000 Erard harp, a No.7 Louis XVI model awaiting them is
brought on board, compliments of the Shiloh prayer warriors.
While anchored in Sydney, a small contingent including Almon Whittaker
row one of the small boats up a river and claim the continent for God. He wrote:
“The inhabitants of that land were not aware of what was taking place in their
very midst, but ... faith in the power of Jesus Christ will see it answered, and anything
that opposes it will be subdued until Australia stands for God and His right to
rule.”
Shirley Nelson speculates that it is here in Sydney where Almon first learns of his
wife’s defection from the Jerusalem mission which was led by Ralph Gleason. She went
to Jaffa and was a guest at Willard Gleason’s home there. Brothers Willard and Ralph
were experiencing a "parting of the ways".
12/2/08 Coronet leaves Sydney
12/13/08 Coronet in Melbourne, where they were treated with respect. New sails
and lines brought aboard. Coronet is dry docked for two days and new paint is
applied and some loose sheet copper is renailed to her hull. Mr S. has a new suit tailored
for him while in port.
1/9/09 The crew of the Loch Garry, an English clipper, gives Coronet a rousing
three times three cheer as she leaves Melbourne. The Coronet company believes they have
won Melbourne for the Lord Jesus Christ.
1/14-23/09 Coronet off Amsterdam Island in the Indian Ocean.
1/23-26/09 Four days are spent boating & gunning in a sportsman’s paradise on the
western horn of Australia. Two more albatross' are added to the collection now hanging in
the saloon.
3/25/09 Coronet off Cape Natal, Africa.
4/10/09 Coronet off Cape Agulhas, Africa.
4/11/09 Coronet anchors in Cape Town, South Africa. Letters from Shiloh are not
particularly reassuring, says Murray in Sublimity of Faith. Some of the news
which awaited them was that Mrs. Whittaker had contacted the American consul in Jaffa and
was seeking a way home to Maine by steamer, which was complicated by the fact that she and
her 4 children had no money. Almon’s brother Rufus, who had left the movement during
the black winter of 1902, was sending her and the children money and food.
There was also news of bad press back home, further dessertions, and
possible lawsuits.
Coronet leaves Capetown immediately after reprovisioning, and
cruises northerly along west Africa. Mr. S. has a dream in which his former friend John R.
Mott from his Student Volunteer Movement days led a long line of redeemed blacks towards
the ocean. When Mr. S. asks “How did you do it Mott?” Mott replied,
“Your prayers made it easy for me, Sandford.”
Mr. S. believes this was God’s way of showing to him the importance of their voyage.
Nelson, in Fair Clear and Terrible, describes the dream as laden with irony, in
that Mott’s call never led him to the African mission field, but labored instead in a
somewhat influential role back in the Student Volunteer movement where he had met Sandford
20 years earlier. Mott worked to bridge the gaps of denominationalism the world over, by
acting as an “ambassador for ecumenism and cooperation”, something Sandford
would never come close to condoning.
5/21/09 Coronet off River Longo, Portugese West Africa. An adventure ensues
following a trip ashore to hunt for game, which Mr. S. never tired of retelling. It is
reiterated here, in Mr. S’s own words, from his Revelation
sermon delivered 12/17/11
"We
have known what it was to spend a night among the wild beasts and face to face with the
African fever off the Western coast of Africa, and have faced the almost certain death of
some of our party in the tropics. We have gone through the awful dangers of the loss of
life from lack of food and water. We ran a risk wherever we went. .... We have had just
such experiences all the way around the globe; within four feet of those awful rocks at
Sydney; in times of awful calms, among the wild beasts of Africa where we faced death in
seven different ways - - from sharks, chills, pneumonia, wild beasts, for we saw their
tracks on every side of us next morning, from the sun the next morning, for we had only
one cap amongst us; I asked God to send as cloud and He did so, and it protected us, and
then from lack of food, for we had not a morsel to eat. I knelt down on the sands of
Africa and said, "Oh God, you have fed me all these years, and I have no reason to
suppose you will not feed me now; my men are hungry and would like to have their
breakfast. We saw no way to get our food but within an hour I and my men were eating our
breakfast by a hot fire.
It came about in a strange way. George
Hughey had been out for hours the night before watching for a favorable opportunity to get
ashore to us but the billows were so awful that he did not dare to attempt it. The next
morning he continued to watch for an opportunity but did not succeed in finding one; but
he got occupied doing something in the boat and [as a result the boat capsized and its
passengers and contents washed ashore in the same manner as we had the day before], ...
but they had our breakfast and it was washed in with the rest. But then he had no matches
with which to light a fire which we very much desired to do in order that they might know
at the vessel that we were safe. George said, " I have some matches." I said,
"Matches, George, you are wet to the skin." He said, "Oh no, I have them in
a good, dry place." and he took off his hat and there he had them in a match safe all
nice and dry so we lit our fire and in a little while were eating our morning meal.
We went through dangers like that for
three years. God cared for us on every sea and in every land in the most marvelous and
wonderful way. The Great God that took us around the world with signs and wonders and
mighty deeds was letting high heaven and the earth know that there is a God in Israel. We
prepared the way for this movement to carry the gospel to those very places where we had
prayed with signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Satan did his best to take our lives many
times, but God, through faith in Christ delivered us. He not only had the sharks, and
drowning, and chills, and African fever there, and the sun smiting us the next morning,
and a lack of faith for the one who had pneumonia, etc., but when we came through those
awful breakers -- the most awful I ever saw in my life for a row boat to pass through, the
boat though eighteen feet long stood right on end. I thought for sure that we could never
get up over that billow and we at last succeeded. The next thing we knew the boat was
making its way through another great wave that had rolled in upon us. How the sailors ever
stayed in the boat I do not see. Seven deaths in twenty four hours and God saved us from
every one of them. Such a religion as that cannot be stamped out."
6/3/09 Coronet off the mouth of the Congo
River.
6/8/09 Coronet at Annobon Island in the Gulf of Guinea, where they stop to take
on water. Capt. McKenzie comes down with African fever, and daughter Deborah a near fatal
bout with sleeping sickness. Both are prayed over and recover. They remain here for
several weeks.
7/18/09 Coronet crosses her westward course between Gibraltar and the Canaries,
in effect, completing her circumnavigation of the world. Mr. S., not knowing whether to
proceed to Palestine or Shiloh receives light from above and sets course for Shiloh.
8/08/09 Coronet off Bermuda.
8/17/09 Coronet in Portland Harbor, having covered 51,924 nautical miles in three
years (30,000 of that “going around”), visited 32 foreign ports, worn out 2
suits of sails, and buried three devoted men in three different countries. Quoting Murray,
"What is more to the point, the
thirty Christian souls she carried had proved the quality of their religion under the
hardest possible circumstances - prolonged confinement together in close quarters. They
had learned the most difficult lesson it is given Christians to learn - "to dwell
together in unity." Through that unity they had achieved a power in prayer and a
purity in group life such as Mr. Sandford himself had never witnessed before. The movement
had suffered to make the journey possible, but out of the suffering thirty overcomers had
emerged, who had proved themselves indeed, "The King’s Own."
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