Whale of a Time

Geprge Bubb. the father of Ester Maria Bubb, who was Ross Shirley's great-grandfather, emigrated from England to the newly established colony of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1830. He was a whaler by trade, earning a living in a very dangerous environment. He had a difficult choice to make when his wife, Esther Shultz Bubb, was due with another child. While he was on a whaling trip Ester Maria was born. In all, there were 14 children born to the Bubb family, so Grandpa must have come home at least now and then. Two of the children died in infancy. Only three were girls, the youngest sister was born after they left for America, so Esther never saw her.

Esther and her sister married two Shirley brothers, William and Thomas. William was Esther's Sunday-School teacher in the English Church, where they were later married. The two couples joined the LDS church in 1855 and immediately had trouble with the inlaws who hated Mormons. The Shirley Boys were told by the "Brothers Bubb" that if they ever tried to take their sisters to America, they would "kill them." So, what happens when you tell a Shirley they can't do something? They made preparations and sailed for America in in a ship called "The Alacrity," in 1859, with a three-month old baby. Their first had died in infancy.

Esther said she stood at the back of the ship and waved a hanky at her mother, who waved back at her, until they were out of sight. They never saw one another again. My cousin, Jim Shirley, later went on a mission to South Africa and looked up the Bubbs. They were friendly and polite, but still very much against Mormons. The picture above is one I found of someone looking out into the ocean from the same beach in Port Elizabeth from which Esther's father went sailing, and from where Esther sailed with her husband and baby to America.