Brother Hanks' Dream of the Spirits in Prison While Dying at Sea — Seen on Addison Pratt's Atlantic Crossing (1844)
Published October 4, 2026 at 4:42 AM
Contributed by
Times and Seasons Research
While serving as a missionary on the first Latter-day Saint mission to the Pacific, Knowlton F. Hanks died of consumption aboard the whaleship Timoleon on November 3, 1843, at the age of twenty-seven. Before his death, he shared two profound visions with his companion Addison Pratt. He described the first as a dream of the spirits in prison, which he characterized as an immense space. He looked to the east and west and saw vast multitudes of people who appeared just like living individuals, gathered as if dispersing from a sermon. He noted the absence of children and expressed a desire to find someone he knew. Later that same day, around 11:00 a.m., he reported a second manifestation in which he heard the sound of the 'last trump' and saw the great multitude described by John in the book of Revelation, standing before God, a number which no man could count. Hanks, who had joined the mission hoping the sea voyage and climate change would improve his health, died shortly thereafter and was buried at sea, with his body weighted by a sandbag and committed to the water in the presence of the ship's crew.
In Their Own Words
“Nov. 3. This morning brother Hanks is very low, and appears to be sinking fast. He has been a faithful brother, and has been very anxious to perform this mission. He has been very sick for some time, but has not murmured. He has had two very glorious visions. The first was a dream of the spirits in prison; it was an immense space. He looked to the east and to the west, and saw immense multitudes of people, that looked just like people in real life. I asked, can these be spirits? I was assured they were. I looked to the north and saw a stand, on which somebody had just been preaching, and they were dispersing from around it. I saw no children among them. I looked to see if there was any body that I knew, but saw none. I thought they were coming together again in a few minutes, and I should be there, and then I should see people I knew. He awoke. About 11, he had another; he said he heard the last trump sound, and saw the multitude which John saw, that no man could number, small and great, stand before God. He died about 12 o'clock, and we have had to commit his body to the mighty deep.”
— Addison Pratt, journal entry dated November 3, 1843, as published in Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, No. 14
Sources & References
Times and Seasons (Commerce, later Nauvoo, Illinois, November 1839–February 1846), 1 August 1844 (Vol. 5, No. 14). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1844-08-01_5_14 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Additional sources (periodical research): Fred E. Woods, "Launching Mormonism in the South Pacific: The Voyage of the Timoleon," in Go Ye into All the World: The Growth and Development of Mormon Missionary Work, ed. Reid L. Neilson and Fred E. Woods (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, 2012), 191–216. https://rsc.byu.edu/go-ye-all-world/launching-mormonism-south-pacific Full first-person account: Times and Seasons, 1 August 1844 (Vol. 5, No. 14), p. 600 https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1844-08-01_5_14
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