Wilford Woodruff's Miraculous Deliverance from a Steamer Disaster

While returning to Utah in 1850 with a large company of Saints from Boston and the East, Wilford Woodruff arrived at Pittsburg and engaged passage on a steamer bound for St. Louis. No sooner had he secured the passage than he received a clear spiritual impression: 'Go not on board of that steamer, neither you nor your company.' Elder Woodruff immediately obeyed this revelation and opted to take a different vessel instead. That same evening, the first steamer departed at dark with two hundred passengers on board. After traveling only five miles down the Ohio River, the boat caught fire. The flames consumed the tiller ropes, leaving the crew unable to steer the vessel toward the shore. Consequently, the lives of nearly all on board were lost, either by fire or by drowning in the river. Elder Woodruff and his company reached their destination in safety, a deliverance he explicitly attributed to his obedience to the promptings of the Spirit of God.