"This goodly ship our palace is,
Our heritage the sea."
It will doubtless appear to many who shall win their way thus far into
this book, a work of impertinent supererogation to describe at large an
American packet-ship, together with the mode of living on board a
regular _Liner_, considering that there are some three or four of these
departing every week from Liverpool, London, and Havre, and at this same
point I can fancy some hot fellow, who has performed his twentieth trip,
here toss by my unoffending volume, with "Devil take the chap! does he
think he knows about all this better than _us_?"
But, hold hard, my fiery friend, whilst I remind your worship that there
are some thousands of the lieges out of the countless numbers who will
be our readers, who, insular though they be, and well used to ships,
have yet no conception of these wonders of the water; that is, provided
the "Europe" is to be taken as a true sample of the service she belongs
to: not to mention that what was new and notable to me, who have
voyaged much, can hardly fail to interest some gentlemen "who live at
home at ease."
Let, then, the reader who knows what a "between-decks" is, step below
with me, and there picture to himself a room forty feet long, not taking
in the deep transom, by sixteen in breadth, having on either hand a
range of inclosed state-rooms about eight feet square, each with its own
door and window, of bird's-eye maple curiously inlaid with variously
grained wood, polished as glass. The upper part of the door and the
whole of the side window are latticed; so that on both being closed, the
occupant is hidden, yet the air admitted freely.
Each of these state-rooms is furnished with a washhand stand, containing
a double service, a chest of drawers, with handles of cut glass, a shelf
or two for books, &c. and a brace of berths or bed-places of ample
dimensions, well appointed with mattress and linen, white as ever lassie
lifted off the sunny side of a brae, at whose foot brawled the burn to
which her labour owed its freshness.
Now, although each room is fitted up for two insides, you may
nevertheless conserve your individuality,--the which I recommend,--at
the cost of an additional half-fare, or, in all, about fifty-five pounds
sterling.
Being here installed, then, _solus_, you will be roused from your sound
night's sleep in the morning at eight bells, or eight o'clock A.M., by
the tinkling of a shrewish-sounding hand-bell, which says, as plainly as
ever the chimes of Bow hailed Whittington lord mayor of London, "Arise,
and shave, and make your toilet, and prepare to come forth; for the cow
is milking, and the kettle is screeching, and the hot rolls beginning to
get over-brown."
Upon this welcome summons, if you are not sea-sick, which Heaven forbid!
or insensible to the goods here by the gods provided for you, you will
bounce or creep out of your crib, according as the waves and your
agility may determine; and popping your head out of window, loudly bawl
"Thomas!" or plain "Tom!" or "Steward!" according to the terms of
friendship and familiarity on which you may stand with this dignitary,
who, by the way, has a vote on board worth canvassing for;--I say bawl
out, because, firstly, your mincing and Clarendon-like lisp of "Waiter!"
would not be heard by one used to listen to the rush of the tempest and
the shriek of the scourged Atlantic; also, for that your stirring call
may remind some wretched skulker of a circumstance which he is miserably
dozing out of remembrance, viz. that breakfast is under weigh. "Yes,
sir!" is the prompt response from the larboard corner of the cabin,
where the steward and his gang are installed with all their appointment
of glass and crockery ranged neatly within reach. Your next call will
be, "Bring me a bottle of Saratoga water"--a chalybeate, cool and brisk
on the palate as soda water, a commendable morning draught, and such a
trumpet to appetite!--well, having swallowed of this, your pint or so,
dress, mount the deck, and inquire "how she heads," and what she has
done during the long hours of night whilst you lay sleeping like a
sea-bird in your wave-borne nest.
You next take a look over the weather quarter, sweep the horizon
knowingly with your best eye, and after, walk forward towards the galley
or kitchen, pricking your ears at certain sputtering and hissing sounds,
the which, backed up by sundry savoury sniffs caught under the tack of
the main-sail, give you foretaste of broiled ham, spitch-cock, eggs,
frizzled bacon, and mutton cutlets.
One by one your messmates tumble up the companion, or cabin-stair; some
hungry and blooming as sound stomachs and clear consciences can make
them, others showing a _leetle_ blue and bilious-like; but each and all
resolute to essay the onslaught, which the train of polished covers,
making rapid transit from the caboose down the steward's hatchway,
proclaim about to begin.
Tinkle, tinkle, ting! again sounds the steward's bell; and, without any
pauses of ceremony, down dive the _convives_, turning _en que_ the foot
of the stair, some to windward, others to leeward, but all facing right
aft--a double game of "follow my leader."
"Oh! 'tis a goodly sight to see," the show which here presents
itself;--covers of all sizes glisten under the flickering rays of the
morning sun, stealing in through the open deck-light, and dancing about
to the heave of the ship over a well-laid cloth flanked by ready plates
and the weapons of attack.
The signal is made, the covers drawn; and, appetite or no appetite, here
is temptation for all. If the incipient voyager will benefit by my
experience, as he might well have done by my example had we been happy
enough to have possessed his amiable society on board the Europe, he
will develope his main battle against the mutton chops _au naturel_;
then gossip over a slice of broiled _Virginy_ ham, with an egg or twain,
whilst his souchong is getting pleasantly cool; then, having emptied his
cup, flirt with a couple of delicate morsels raised from the thin part
of a salted shad-fish, the which shad, for richness and flavour is
surpassing.
To his second cup he will dedicate the upper crust of a well-baked roll
with cold butter; and, after having duly paused a while, choose between
Cognac and Schiedam for a _chasse_. If he will yet walk with me, I say
unhesitatingly, try Schiedam, in the absence, reverently be it spoken,
of Isla or Innishowen.
Now, my pupil, if this breakfast would, which it could not fail to do,
raise the bastard appetite of your close-curtained, feather-bedded
coal-smoked, snivelling in-dweller of the city, judge of the influence
it must exercise over a child of ocean, who inhales the breath of heaven
freshly as generated beneath the blue sky that vaults his watery world,
pure, uncorrupted, untainted by touch of anything more earthly.
Why, man, it is worth a life of ordinary vegetation to be stirred but
for once by the sensations, such a morning as I draw from, in such a
place, create; and to those who sagely shake the head and doubt, if any
such cavillers there be, I say, "Pay your just debts; make your tenants
easy, that their prayers may be in your sails; forgive your enemies,
kiss your wife, draw up and add in her favour a codicil to your
testament; and your duties being thus fulfilled, with a clean heart,
backed by forty-eight clean shirts, go and try; and if you 'fall not' of
my advice before you again embrace your mother country, curse Fortune
for a perverse wench, and set your humble servant down for false
counsel."
Leaving you now, my pupil, to write, to read, to practise shooting with
ball at a bottle swinging from some outstanding spar, or to follow
whatever pursuit most engages your fancy, for the space of some four
hours, we will just name an intermediate and somewhat tempting meal,
ycleped luncheon, chiefly indeed for the purpose of advising you to
eschew it as you value unimpaired digestion, and would appreciate a
four o'clock dinner. If, however, you are obstinately self-willed, and
choose to obey a villanous unappeasable appetite, in place of following
my wholesome advice, I pray you, at least, not to sit down knife in
hand, as I have noted "some shameless creatures do;" but lift a piece of
pilot biscuit, request some kind soul to shave the under side of the
corned round for you, then desiring the steward to follow with a tumbler
of Guiness's porter, fly the place and seek the deck.
Shuffle-board, chess, and backgammon, with exercise and pleasant
converse, will while away the intervening hours so quickly, that, if you
do not keep a bright look-out, you will be surprised by the dinner-bell
before you think of your toilet, which, if a luxury to you on shore,
will be thrice welcome at sea, besides being a pleasant way of disposing
of twenty minutes; not to mention the ladies, who, at all times sensibly
alive to any neglect in us, become doubly so here, where there is so
much to remind them that they are not ruling in their own pretty
drawing-rooms, though, as the old song has it,
"Queens they be
On the boundless sea,"
as indeed they are, and ought to be, everywhere.
_Mem._--Do not trust your appetite to forewarn you of approaching
dinner, since I have been more than once deceived by over-confidence in
that quarter: truth is, you have the cry of "wolf" from that insatiable
look-out so early and so often, that you learn after a time to treat the
call as impertinent and troublesome, and so strive to cut it until the
cutting moment really and unexpectedly comes upon you.
I have been so elaborate upon the head of breakfast, which meal, I
freely confess to be my foible, that I feel as though any description of
dinner would now come comparatively weak; besides, to speak verily, one
might, with time and prudent choice, get as good a dinner, perhaps,
a-shore in favoured countries: but for a breakfast, pho! the thing is
beyond reach, away from the stores of a well-regulated Yankee packet. I
challenge Europe, including Scotland, with all her _Finnanhaddies_,
_herrin's_, cakes, and preserves, to back her.
Suffice it then to say, that here is a dinner of three courses, with
pastry and various _confitures_ which would not shame Gunter; and, for
_boisson_, sherry, madeira, hock, and claret, with port for those who
indulge in strong potations, and three or four times a week well-iced
champagne.
A variety of dried fruits compose the dessert, since, although they
sometimes raise small salad, I feel bound to admit that they have not
yet attained to the comfort of a pinery on board: nor, let me add, did I
see finger-glasses in use; and how persons get on who have never dined
without them, I cannot guess, this not being my case, since luckily,
even in England, I had sometimes roughed it in very good society without
these necessaries. Once seated to dinner, there you remain, and imbibe
until discretion bids you hold your hand, for other check have you none,
cellar and servants remaining at your disposal.
After a walk on deck, and a cup of tea or coffee, you form your party
for whist or some round game, or join the ladies in their _boudoir_,
which I ought to have mentioned before as leading out of the great room
forward, being a pretty square apartment, fitted up with sofas, mirrors,
loo-table, and other little elegancies which ladies love to look upon
and be surrounded by. _Entre nous_, between the lights this snuggery
affords tolerable convenience for a little flirtation, if you are lucky
enough to get one up;--this broken off, you play your play, and at the
conclusion of your rubber of whist, or _parti d'ecarte_, you prepare for
bed,--early hours forming here one of those sanitary laws which the wise
feel little inclined to impinge.
Now I am quite well aware that on the head of night-caps every biped has
his own fancy, and most of the genus I also know to be infernally
pig-pated on this seemingly simple point; such incurables I abandon, to
supper, porter, night-mare, and all the other nameless horrors that
rouse them to avenge an ill-used stomach; but to the willing ear and
ductile mind I whisper again, "try mine." _Imprimis_--one cigar, one
tumbler of weak Hollands' grog, better named swizzle, all to be disposed
of in pleasant company during some half-hour's walk on deck; when, if
you should sometimes, as I hope you often may, fall in with a soft downy
south-west breeze, a clear deep-blue sky over head, gemmed full with
little stars, and fringed about, down into the watery round, by a broad
border of jet-black cloud, against which each curling wave appears to
break, and the goodly ship seems as though delving through a lake of
quick-silver--when the track of the swift porpoises show like long
furrows of dazzling flame, and over the whirling eddies of the keel's
deep wake is seen to hover a strange unearthly light,--a thin bluish,
devilish, vaporous haze, which, in the silent watch of night, maketh the
lonely gazer's flesh to creep, and conjures through the brain every wild
legend whispered of the "vasty deep," fascinating the eyes, and holding
them with spell-like power, until--until what?--why, until a sharp
twitch on the lip from the fire of the close-burned cigar we recommended
awakens you to a due sense of such a "lame and most impotent
conclusion."
Jump off the spare spar on which you have been perched whilst gazing so
dreamily over the ship's quarter, give the last half of your grog to the
old lad at the wheel, peep in on the compass, find she heads about
west-north-west, and, well satisfied, descend the stair. The steward
lights the waxen taper which fixes on a branch before your glass; when,
having performed such ceremonies as you delight in, thank God and sleep:
and thus ends the chapter of a day.
And, gentle pupil, if you would learn yet more especially to enjoy all
this, which I have for your benefit somewhat _lengthily_ detailed, give
directions to the steward to rouse you at deck-washing; that is, about
six A.M.; put on drawers and jacket of fine cotton, and, sunshine or
cloud, calm or squall, run on deck, leave your _robe de chambre_ in the
round-house, and slide down into the lee gangway, where, according to
previous contract, you see a grim-looking seven-foot seaman--pick out
the tallest--waiting for you with a couple of buckets of sea-water, one
held ready in his claw, with a half-grin upon his puckered phiz as he
inwardly blesses the simplicity of the landsman who turns out of his
hammock in the morning-watch to be soused like the captain's turtle in
cold salt water; and i' faith! startlingly cold it gets when on the
Banks, even in July, especially if within the influence of an ice-berg
or twain: think not, however, of this, the infliction is light in
comparison with the after enjoyment.
Being seated in the lee-scuppers, give the word; up goes the bucket, and
wush! down pours the deluge on your oil-capped crown. "Hah!" you cry
involuntarily, for the flesh will quiver, &c. You then compress your
lips a little closer, whilst Jack's giggle expands into a broad grin,
and in a steadier stream descends the second shower; which, having
abided to the last drop, away you scurry along the wet deck, that is,
always provided you avoid a fall or two by the way, into the
round-house, on gown, and down to your little den; where a coarse towel,
and a couple of flesh-brushes smartly applied for five minutes, will
produce such a circulation throughout your inward man, that, like bold
Waterton, you feel as though you could back an alligator, take the
sea-serpent by the beard, or kick a noisy steamboat fairly out of water.
I have, since I am at confession, sometimes in very bad weather been
tempted into bed after this ablution, when such an hour's nap awaits
one! But this is a luxury Xerxes would have given a Satrapie to have
tasted, and not to be indulged in over-often, lest it lead to
effeminacy, which is as far removed from comfort as is sensuality from
pleasure.
I have often heard objected to these fine ships the discomfort and
difficulty attending toilet; but, for my own part, I did not discover
these. Having a state-room, and possessed of the same appliances, with
perhaps a little more trouble, a man may be as scrupulously nice as in
any other dressing-room; provided always he be not prostrated by that
unsparing nausea, sea-sickness; from the which I wish you, gentle
reader, the full exemption I enjoy, and so commend you to repose.