Newlyweds Begin Their Mission in Tahiti Together, 1915

The steamship "Marama,"  which carried my grandparents to Papeete, Tahiti from San Fransico, 1915

The Journey to Tahiti

My grandparents,  newlyweds began their mission together on their journey to Tahiti.  It sounds like they had a nice time on their steamship and were excited to travel and cross the equator.

My grandmother described the journey:

"It [the steamship] had three decks--a lower and two uppers.  When we first went on board, the people looked down on us because we were Mormons.  But while on this voyage,  I played deck billiards and won the prize.  When I excelled at these games,  they just really changed and were so friendly and so social and lovely--both the men and the women.  We left San Francisco on October 13th, 1915, arriving in Papeete on October 25th.



Wednesday,  October the 13th, 1915,  we sailed from Pier 25 at twelve a.m. on the steamship Marama for Tahiti. Lila, Floss, and Lily Green were there to see us set sail. At one o’clock soon after going out of the Golden Gate, the first meal was served. Of course I had to feed the fish. [I think she means that she fed the fish in the ocean below by throwing crumbs down to them.] 

We met Elders Gallager, Hinckley, Campbell, Taylor and Cox who were on their way to New Zealand to enter their mission. We had a very enjoyable time on the sea. It took us about twelve days to get to Tahiti. We made lots of friends. We played deck billiards, a deck game. Then we put on programs, and had lots of nice conversations with the people that we met. It was a very enjoyable time and especially the day we crossed the equator was a very historical day. It was a rather cold windy day though, but we enjoyed it very much. It just seemed so fantastic to be so far away from home crossing the equator.

Anyhow, like I say, we had so many wonderful friends there, and we enjoyed the meals. One of the couples that we met there,  that we were very proud to sit at the same table with, was the organist, a famous man, who played the opening organ music to open the 1915 fair in San Francisco. He and his wife were there.

                                        Arrival in Tahiti

Papeete, Tahiti,  1915



My grandfather wrote in his diary:

Monday, Oct. 25th, 1915.  We were routed out of bed at 12:00 a.m. to be examined by the physician when we found we were in the harbor of Papeete, Tahiti.  Upon looking out,  we got our first glimpse of Tahiti, which with its high, rugged mountains and palm trees certainly looked a wild place at night.  We did not go ashore until morning.  At 5:00 a.m. we watched the Marama sail away for its last time at Papeete.

Missionaries of the Tahitian Mission, circa 1916.  Elder George Compton 2nd to last on top row, Margaret Compton to the far right,  seated.

My grandmother described her arrival and early days in the mission home:

When we arrived at Tahiti, we arrived about midnight. We went to the portholes and looked out, and it was all dark. And "Oh,"   I thought, "Where are we? Where are we?" 

We had to be examined by the steamship physician. And as it began to get lighter, why I saw the most beautiful, the most heavenly place you’d ever want to see. A tropical island, all the beautiful, tropical trees and flowers and the wharf was so pretty and the water. About the early morning the missionaries came down to the boat and oh, they looked so nice in their white suits and George had gone on shore to the mission home to look things over and then he came back and we all went to the mission home.

When I saw that mission home, I was so thrilled with it-- I was just so happy because I just didn’t have any idea that I would be living in such a beautiful places. The grounds around it were so pretty, and the trees, the tropical plants. It was a ten-room house, with two halls and also, there was a little kitchenette that was built separately. And every room opened off onto a beautiful porch or veranda. And, when we went in there we saw it was nicely furnished and the elders were so nice. I think there was Elder Taos, [?] and Elder Burbidge and a number of them. They were all so, friendly and accommodating to us.

Of course one of the things they did to George was shave his hair all off. That was one of the ceremonies that they always performed.

But as I toured the house, I could see there hadn’t been a lady there to take care of the house for quite some time. The curtains were needing washing and stretching and the kitchen needed a good cleaning up. And I noticed that all the legs of the table and some of the chairs in the kitchen were standing in little dishes of water. And I thought "Oh my goodness the missionaries have been putting the dishes to soak like that," and they were kind of dirty you know,  and I said "How come all these pieces of furniture in the kitchen are sitting in dishes of water" and they said "Oh sister you have to do that to keep the ants from getting up on the tables and chairs" and they were big. And they were really large ants.

Well, anyhow, we got settled there nicely. President and Sister Rossiter weren’t at the mission headquarters at the time. So we had quite a little bit of time to get the house all cleaned up and the curtains washed up and mended and ironed and stretched and back up on the windows. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day down there and a fine Christmas day.

By the time Christmas day came President and Sister Rossiter had arrived at the mission home, and of course then things started popping. Then we started in with our class work and our meetings really in earnest.