in early life a workman in the yard. I met him soon after his elevation
by the Queen to the baronetage. He was then, apparently, in the best of
health, and was full of plans for building still faster steamers for
the Atlantic. That he would have soon put afloat a vessel of greater
speed than his own Etruria, there is no doubt in the minds of those
who knew his genius as a naval architect, and the indomitable and
imperious will with which he carried out all his plans. But he died
suddenly in 1888, and though his work was incomplete, he had already
done wonders in minimizing the discomfort and duration of the now
familiar passage of the Atlantic.
OCEAN PASSENGER TRAVEL.
BY JOHN H. GOULD.
THE FIRST OCEAN RACE—PASSENGER TRAFFIC IN THE OLD CLIPPER
DAYS—STATE-ROOMS AND TABLE FARE IN EARLY DAYS—THE FIRST OCEAN
MAIL CONTRACT—DISCOMFORTS FIFTY YEARS AGO—AMERICAN TRANSATLANTIC
LINES—GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES—NOVELTIES ON THE COLLINS LINE—WHEN
STEERAGE PASSENGERS WERE ALLOWED ON OCEAN STEAMSHIPS—IMPORTANT
CHANGES IN THE COMFORT OF PASSENGERS WROUGHT BY THE OCEANIC IN
1870—THE PRESENT ERA OF TWIN-SCREW SHIPS—THEIR ADVANTAGES—THE FASTEST
VOYAGES EAST AND WEST—RECORDS OF THE GREAT RACERS—MODERN CONVENIENCES
AND LUXURIES—THE INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF CABIN PASSENGERS FROM
1881 TO 1890—HOW THE LARDER IS SUPPLIED—ELECTRIC LIGHTS, LIBRARIES,
AND MUSIC-ROOMS—CUSTOMS PECULIAR TO THE FRENCH, GERMAN, AND BRITISH
LINES—LIFE IN THE STEERAGE—IMMIGRATION STATISTICS—GOVERNMENT
REGULATIONS.
There are, undoubtedly, many men and women in New York to-day who went
down to the Battery and cheered and waved their hands in greeting to
the first steamship that entered this port from Europe. This important
event took place on April 23, 1838, and it was doubly interesting and
significant because not only the first transatlantic steamship came to
anchor in the harbor on that day, but the second also; steam travel
across the sea thus beginning with a race that was earnestly contested
and brilliantly won. Furthermore, it was a race that attracted
infinitely more attention than any of the contests that have succeeded
it. Two steam-vessels had crossed the Atlantic in years previous,
both having started from this side; the Savannah, from Savannah, in
1819;[16] and the Royal William from Quebec, in 1831; but neither of
these voyages had demonstrated the feasibility of abandoning the fine
sailing packets and clippers for steamers when it came to a long
voyage. The Savannah used both steam and sail during eighteen of the
twenty-five days required for a passage to Liverpool, and more than one
clipper overtook and passed her during the voyage. The Royal William
had to utilize all her hold for coal in order to carry sufficient fuel
to insure a completion of the voyage. The reasons for the commercial
failure of such craft are, therefore, apparent; but they proved to be
available and profitable for coastwise traffic, and meantime inventive
genius was at work on plans and models and theories, all intended
for the construction of a steamship capable of carrying goods and
passengers between Europe and America, and of outrunning the packets.
Public interest, accordingly, was deeply stirred on both sides of the
ocean when, in 1837, it was learned that two steam-vessels were on
the stocks, building for the American service. These were the Sirius,
at London, and the Great Western, at Bristol. It was these vessels
that made the first race; the Sirius making the trip, measured from
Queenstown, in eighteen and a half days, and the Great Western in
fourteen and a half days. The Sirius, having had nearly four days’
start, came in a few hours ahead of the winner. She brought seven
passengers, and whether the Great Western had others than her crew on
board cannot now be ascertained.
At this time there were several lines of sailing vessels in operation
between America and Europe, among the most important of which were
Williams & Guion’s Old Black Star line, afterward merged into the Guion
line of Steamships; Grimshaw & Co.’s Black Star line; C. H. Marshall
& Co.’s Black Ball line; and Tapscott’s line. All these concerns
conducted a profitable business in carrying passengers, and the ships
were provided with accommodations for the three classes into which
travellers have been divided from early times. It is impossible at
this day to determine with exactness the volume of passenger traffic
in clippers, for no complete records were kept; but that it was
comparatively light may be inferred from the fact that provision was
made in the large ships for from ten to thirty first-cabin and twenty
second-cabin passengers.
The steerage capacity varied from eight hundred to one thousand, and
it was a long time after steamship lines had been established before
immigrants ceased to come over in clippers. In fact, for ten years
after the inauguration of the first steam line the immigrants had no
choice—the steamships carrying none but cabin passengers. The rates
were, £30 for first cabin; £8 for second cabin; and £5 to £8 for
steerage. The appointments of cabins and state-rooms were meagre as
compared with the great steamships of to-day, but the table fare was
substantially the same that is provided now. The first-cabin passengers
fared as they might in a good hotel; those in the second cabin, or
“intermediates,” as they were called, had a plentiful supply of plain
well-prepared food, and the needs of the steerage passengers were
looked after by the British Government, which instituted an official
bill of fare. These matters will be described in greater detail farther
on.
In the _Marine News_ of April 4, 1838, published in New York, the
agents of the Sirius advertise her as a “New and Powerful Steamship,
700 tons burden, 320 horse-power.” The advertisement continues:
This vessel has superior accommodations, and is fitted with separate
cabins for the accommodation of families, to whom every possible
attention will be given.
Cabin, $140.00, including provisions, wines, etc.
Second cabin, $80.00, including provisions.
Commenting upon the arrival of the Sirius and Great Western, the New
York _Courier and Enquirer_ of April 24, 1838, said:
What may be the ultimate fate of this excitement—whether or not the
expenses of equipment and fuel will admit of the employment of these
vessels in the ordinary packet service—we cannot pretend to form an
opinion; but of the entire feasibility of the passage of the Atlantic
by steam, as far as regards safety, comfort, and despatch, even in
the roughest and most boisterous weather, the most sceptical must now
cease to doubt.
[Illustration: In the Grand Saloon of an Inman Steamer.]
The “fate of the experiment,” as far as the Sirius was concerned, was
decided by the initial voyage. She had taken on four hundred and
fifty tons of coal at Queenstown, all of which had been consumed before
passing Sandy Hook, and had it not been for the sacrifice of spare
spars and forty-three barrels of rosin to the demands of the furnace,
she would not have entered the upper bay under steam. Nevertheless
there were people who trusted her capability to get back to Queenstown
with the same quantity of coal, and among these confident, not to say
venturesome, travellers, were the Chevalier Wyckoff and James Gordon
Bennett, Sr. The Sirius made better time on the eastward trip, but she
never again crossed the ocean. For many years she plied between Cork
and Dublin.
As a business venture the Great Western was more successful, and she
made in all thirty-seven round voyages between Bristol, or Liverpool,
and New York. Sixty-six passengers sailed in her on her first voyage
from New York. Enthusiastic reporters of that day record that at least
one hundred thousand persons crowded the Battery and other points of
view to see her off. She had been advertised as follows:
BRITISH STEAM-PACKET SHIP GREAT WESTERN,
JAMES HOSKEN, R.N., _Commander_:
Having arrived yesterday from Bristol, which place she left on the
8th inst., at noon, will sail from New York for Bristol on Monday,
May 7th, at 2 o’clock P.M.
She takes no Steerage Passengers. Rates in the Cabin, including Wines
and Provisions of every kind, 30 guineas; a whole State-room for
one person, 50 guineas. Steward’s fee for each passenger, £1 10s.
sterling. Children under 13 years of age, half price. No charge for
Letters or Papers. The Captain and Owners will not be liable for any
Package, unless a Bill of Lading has been given for it. One to two
hundred tons can be taken at the lowest current rates.
Passage or freight can be engaged, a plan of cabin may be seen, and
further particulars learned, by applying to
RICHARD IRVIN,
98 Front St.
Other steamships made experimental voyages across the Atlantic after
this, and several attempts were made to establish regular lines, that
is, a service with stated times of sailing from one year’s end to
another; but none of these succeeded until 1840, when the British &
North American Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company was organized. The chief
promoter of this concern was Mr. Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, and the
name of the corporation was speedily forgotten in the popular adoption
of his name to designate the line. Mr. Cunard and his associates had
been keen observers of the various experiments in steam navigation,
and naturally they profited by others’ failures. By no means the
least important feature of their enterprise, by which it differed
from previous ventures, and by which it secured a fighting chance for
prosperity, was an arrangement with the British Government for carrying
the mails. The first mail contract covered a period of seven years at
£60,000 annually. This service was monthly in the beginning, afterward
fortnightly, and the points touched were Liverpool, Halifax, and
Boston. Eventually, with increased subventions from the Government, a
weekly service was established between Liverpool and New York, as well
as a semi-monthly service between Liverpool and Boston. The first fleet
of the Cunard line consisted of four vessels—the Britannia, Acadia,
Caledonia, and Columbia. Another steamship, the Unicorn, made what was
probably a voyage of announcement for the company. The Unicorn was
the first steam-vessel from Europe to enter Boston Harbor, where she
arrived on June 2, 1840. Although Boston made as much fuss over this
event as New York had over the arrival of the Sirius and Great Western
two years before, regular communication with Europe was not established
until the arrival of the Britannia, the real pioneer of the Cunard
line. She left Liverpool on Friday, July 4, 1840, and made the voyage
to Boston, including the détour to Halifax and delay there of twelve
hours, in fourteen days and eight hours. That Mr. Cunard was correct in
believing that transportation by steam would stimulate travel between
the continents is clear enough to us now; but he and his associates
must have felt justified in the undertaking by the fact that the
Britannia carried ninety cabin passengers on her first trip.
Although the passengers had “the run” of the entire ship, their
accommodations were little, if any, better than those provided in
the clippers. The saloon and state-rooms were all in the extreme
after-part of the vessel, and there were no such things as comfortable
smoking-rooms on deck, libraries, sitting-rooms, electric lights and
annunciators, automatic windows to port-holes; and there were no baths
to be obtained except through the kind offices of the boatswain or
his mate, who vigorously applied the hose on such passengers as came
dressed for the occasion when the decks were being washed in the early
morning. “State-room” was much more of a misnomer then than it is now.
On the most unpretentious modern steamship there is room enough in the
chambers to put a small trunk, and even other articles of convenience
to the traveller; and one may dress, if he takes reasonable care,
without knocking his knuckles and elbows against the wall or the edges
of his berth. Nowadays, too, the state-room is usually large enough
to accommodate three or four persons, while some are arranged to hold
more, if the ship is crowded. The pioneer steamship had chambers so
narrow that there was just room enough for a stool to stand between
the edge of the two-feet-wide berth and the wall—mere closets. There
were two berths in each room, one above the other. By paying somewhat
less than double fare a passenger given to luxury might have a room to
himself, according to the advertisement of the Great Western. Within
such narrow quarters, however, everything possible was done for the
passenger’s comfort. A gentleman, now in business in New York, who
crossed in the earliest days of the Cunard line, and who has since
sailed on the modern racers, says that the difference is by no means as
great as might be expected. He puts it this way:
“The table was as good then as it is now, and the officers and stewards
were just as attentive. There is more costly ornamentation now; but
that aside, the two great improvements over the liners of forty-five
years ago are in speed and space. There is more room now to turn around
in, and the service is somewhat better.”
This is a very good-humored view of the matter. It is not probable
that latter-day travellers would be content to put up with narrow
rooms, smoking lamps, low ceilings, and plain edibles, all of which are
now entirely changed. The traveller to-day demands more than comfort
and safety. Travelling is in the main itself a luxury, and as more and
more Americans have found themselves with sufficient means to indulge
in it, they have demanded more and more luxurious surroundings and
appointments. It is in response to this demand and the growth of the
traffic, that within the last few years there has been placed upon the
transatlantic lines a fleet of steamships that surpass in every respect
anything that the world has seen.
For several years the Cunard line enjoyed what was substantially a
monopoly of the steam carrying trade between England and America,
although individual vessels made trips back and forth at irregular
intervals, and various and unsuccessful attempts were made to establish
a regular service. The first enterprise of this kind that originated
in the United States was the Ocean Steam Navigation Company. In 1847
this corporation undertook to carry the American mails between New York
and Bremen twice a month. The Government paid $200,000 a year for this
service, and the vessels touched at Cowes, Isle of Wight, on each trip.
Two steamships were built for this line, the Washington and Herman.
When the contract with the Government expired both were withdrawn and
the project was abandoned. About the same time C. H. Marshall & Co.,
proprietors of the Black Ball line of packet-ships, built a steamship,
the United States, to supplement their transatlantic business, but the
venture proved to be unprofitable. Then came the New York & Havre Steam
Navigation Company. This line was also subsidized by the Government for
carrying the United States mails between New York, Southampton, and
Havre, fortnightly, at $150,000 annually. The two steamships built for
this purpose were wrecked, and two others were chartered in order to
carry out the mail contract, until the Fulton and the Arago, two new
steamships built for the line, were ready for service in 1856.
[Illustration: The Steamer’s Barber-Shop.]
The most important American rival which foreign corporations have
encountered in transatlantic steam navigation was the famous Collins
line. Mr. E. K. Collins had grown up in the freight and passenger
business between New York and Liverpool, and in 1847 he began to
interest New York merchants in a plan to establish a new steamship
line. Two years later a company which he had organized launched four
vessels—the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and Baltic. They were liberally
subsidized; the Government paying to the company $858,000 yearly
for carrying the mails; conditions imposed being that the vessels
should make twenty-six voyages every year, and that the passage from
port to port should be better in point of time than that made by the
Cunarders. The Collins line met the conditions successfully; its
vessels making westward trips that averaged eleven days, ten hours,
and twenty-one minutes, as compared with twelve days, nineteen hours,
and twenty-six minutes by the British steamships. The vessels of the
Collins line cost upward of $700,000 each. This was a great deal of
money to put into a steamship in those days, and as the largest of the
fleet was considerably smaller than the smallest of the steamships
that now ply between New York and European ports, there was naturally
a good percentage of cost in the appointments for the comfort of the
passengers. Many features that have since come to be regarded as
indispensable on board ship were introduced by the Collins vessels.
Among them none attracted more comment when the Atlantic arrived at
Liverpool, at the end of her first voyage, May 10, 1849, than the
barber-shop. English visitors to the vessel, as she lay at anchor in
the Mersey, saw for the first time the comfortable chair, with its
movable head-rest and foot-rest, in which Americans are accustomed to
recline while undergoing shaving. Another novelty was a smoking-room
in a house on the after-part of the deck. In the predecessors of the
Atlantic smokers had to get on as well as might be in an uninviting
covered hatchway known as the “fiddley.” The Collins line vessels had
not only a dining-room sixty feet long by twenty feet broad, but had a
general saloon sixty-seven feet by twenty feet. These were divided by
the steward’s pantry. Rose, satin, and olive woods figured prominently
in the decorations; there were rich carpets, marble-topped tables,
expensively upholstered chairs and sofas; a profusion of mirrors; all
the panels and the saloon windows were ornamented with coats-of-arms
and other designs emblematic of American freedom; all of which made,
according to an English writer, a “general effect of chasteness and a
certain kind of solidity.”
The Collins line obtained its share of a steadily increasing passenger
traffic between the Old and New Worlds. It carried freight at from $30
to $40 a ton; it had the advantage of an immense subsidy; but to all
intents and purposes the corporation was bankrupt at the end of six
years. It cost too much to maintain the high rate of speed required
by the Government. Moreover, two vessels were lost; the Arctic, which
went down after a collision with a French steamer off Cape Race, in
September, 1854, when two hundred and twenty-two of the two hundred and
sixty-eight people on board were drowned; and the Pacific, which was
never heard from after she left Liverpool on June 23, 1856.
Almost simultaneously with the inauguration of the Collins line
another candidate for ocean business appeared, bringing with it two
innovations of great importance to all travellers. This was the
Liverpool, New York, & Philadelphia Steamship Company, better known,
even in its own offices, as the Inman line. It was the original plan of
this company to establish a line between Liverpool and Philadelphia,
and for several years, beginning in 1850, no calls were made at New
York. The Inman Company was successful in securing a contract from the
British and Canadian Governments for carrying the mails _via_ Halifax,
and was the successor to the Cunard line on that route; the company
then settled down, with a comfortable mail contract, to carrying
passengers, freight, and mail between Liverpool and New York, calling
at Queenstown on every trip.
[Illustration: More Comfortable on Deck.]
During the Crimean War the transatlantic trade received a severe
check, as more than half the steamships were withdrawn and placed in
the service of the British and the French Governments as transports.
During that time the Collins line and other American lines received
quite an impetus by many of the vessels of both the Cunard and Inman
lines being required for transport duty. At the close of the Crimean
War, however, a reaction set in when these ships were again put in
commission, with a decidedly disastrous effect on the American lines.
In 1855 Commodore Vanderbilt endeavored to get a subsidy from the
American Government for a mail line to Europe, but, notwithstanding
his failure to procure this contract, he placed three or four vessels
on the route between New York, Southampton, and Havre, and later on
the Bremen route. The venture was more or less profitable. Almost the
last remnants of American enterprise in Atlantic passenger traffic
disappeared with the steamships Fulton and Arago of the New York and
Havre line, which were withdrawn in 1868. Mention should, however, be
made of the American line, with four iron screw steamers, which began
to run between Philadelphia and Liverpool in 1873, and ran regularly
since its inception, without any Government subsidy.
Two innovations introduced by the Inman line became prominent features
of ocean business, and it may be left an open question as to which
was the more important. One was the use of the screw-propeller, and
the other was the carrying of steerage, or third-class, passengers.
Previous to 1850 all steamships built for transatlantic voyages had
been side-wheelers, and even as late as 1870 there were steam-vessels
that came into the port of New York with the walking-beam, familiar
to patrons of modern ferry-boats and river steamers. The principle
of the screw-propeller had been known and utilized for many years;
but it was not believed that a steamship could cross the ocean in
safety unless side-paddles were employed. The first iron transatlantic
screw steamship was the City of Glasgow (except the Great Britain,
which first arrived in New York on September 10, 1845, making but two
transatlantic trips, and therefore not entering as a factor into this
trade), built on the Clyde by Tod & McGregor. She made four successful
voyages between Glasgow and New York before she was purchased by
the corporation that afterward became known as the Inman line. This
innovation, although it did not result at first in any marked increase
of speed, soon found approbation in the policies of rival companies.
[Illustration: A Quiet Flirtation.]
The other innovation was equally long in finding acceptance among
oceanic steamship companies, but it eventually prevailed, even to the
extermination of the clipper ship as a passenger carrier. It may be
remarked just here that the introduction of the screw-propeller added
to the discomforts of the cabin passengers; for in the first vessels
of the Inman line the state-rooms and saloons were retained in the
after-part of the ships, where the motion of the sea and the noise of
the screw were most apparent.
Leaving this matter for the present, it is worth noting that the
steady increase in passenger traffic between the two continents led to
the organization of many other companies that tried to find a share
in the carrying business. The Glasgow & New York Steamship Company
was started in 1854 by Tod & McGregor, ship-builders; the service
was fortnightly. In 1859 they decided to confine their business to
ship-building, and the fleet and good-will were then sold out to the
Inman line, who continued the service for a year or two, but finally
withdrew the fleet from Glasgow and concentrated their entire business
between Liverpool, Queenstown, and New York.
During the period from 1850 to 1860 many Atlantic lines were
established, several of which are in successful operation to-day. The
new-comers during that decade, as well as in the following decade,
adopted generally the innovations ventured by the Inman line; but it
was not until after 1870 that the side-wheeler disappeared from the
ocean, and it was not until 1874 that clipper ships ceased to bring
immigrants. It is said that the life of an iron steamship is unlimited;
that time enough has not elapsed since the first iron ships were
floated to determine how long they would naturally last under good
usage. The importance, therefore, of the innovation introduced by the
Inman line may be readily inferred when it is stated that the oldest
steamship belonging to any of the regular lines now in the passenger
service between New York and European ports was built in 1867. Within
the last year or two steel has been almost entirely substituted for
iron, it being lighter and more durable.