When Charles Dickens crossed in January of 1842, not then was the experience one of delight or anything approaching thereto. The ship on which he travelled to America was the Cunard Britannia, bound for Halifax and Boston with the mails. Of the other features of this early steamship we have already spoken, but some of the impressions which Dickens has left us regarding the comfort, or the want of it, on board this ship are worthy of attention by those who find cause for complaint even in the perfectly appointed travelling Atlantic “hotels” of to-day. Something of the appearance of his state-room may be seen by looking at[ the illustration facing this page], which is here inserted by the courtesy of the Cunard Company. “That this state-room had been specially engaged for ‘Charles Dickens Esquire and Lady,’” he remarks in his “American Notes,” “was rendered sufficiently clear even to my scared intellect by a very small manuscript announcing the fact, which was pinned on a very flat quilt, covering a very thin mattress, spread like a surgical plaster on a most inaccessible shelf.” He speaks of his cabin as an “utterly impracticable, thoroughly hopeless, and profoundly preposterous box.” What he thought of the Britannia’s saloon is depicted for us in no sparing terms. “Before descending into the bowels of the ship,” he adds, “we had passed from the deck into a long, narrow apartment, not unlike a gigantic hearse with windows in the sides; having at the upper end a melancholy stove, at which three or four chilly stewards were warming their hands; while on either side, extending down its whole dreary length, was a long, long table, over each of which a rack, fixed to the low roof, and stuck full of drinking-glasses and cruet-stands, hinted dismally at rolling seas and heavy weather.” What he would have thought of the saloon and the state-rooms on the Mauretania, with their glaring contrast to the accommodation on the lively little Britannia, we need not stop to imagine. The fare in those days from Liverpool to Boston was thirty-eight guineas. Nowadays, for one-half that sum life on an Atlantic liner can be pleasant and luxurious.
As steamships became bigger, the conditions of travel became gradually more tolerable, but it was not until the influence of the first White Star Oceanic that a revolution was made in these matters. Quite apart from the superior qualities of her hull and engines she was more thoughtfully arranged with a view to making the passenger’s life at least as comfortable as was then thought possible. Some of these improvements we have already noted in the course of our story, but it is worth remembering that in the amelioration of the passenger’s lot the White Star Line have not been in the rear. Among other items, they have to their credit the honour of having originated on board ship the placing of the saloon and passenger accommodation amidships, instead of right aft; installing electric bells, providing separate chairs in the saloon, instead of using the old-fashioned, uncomfortable high-backed forms, which were thought good enough for the ocean voyager; installing self-acting water-tight doors, supplying third-class passengers with bedding, eating and drinking utensils—for in olden days the emigrant had to provide not merely his own supply of food for the voyage, but everything he required of all sorts excepting water. It was the White Star Line which was the first to supply an elaborate system of Turkish baths for first-class passengers. But it was the Oceanic which was the turning-point in steamship comfort. All else that has since followed has been not a little influenced by this ship. For us to go through a detailed list of the wonderful comforts which are obtainable on board the modern passenger steamship would convey the impression of reading through an advertisement catalogue. Already the reader is in possession of some knowledge of the really wonderful equipment which is to be found on the modern ocean-going steamship. Nothing has been omitted that could well have been added. Nowadays, in spite of the extravagant waste of space which such a proceeding involves, many of the best steamships are fitted with single-berthed state-rooms, so that to be thrust into acquaintanceship with a perfect stranger is no longer essential for the whole voyage. Dickens’s “preposterous box” has grown into an exceedingly comfortable apartment, and the millionaire may hire for the voyage the regal suite with bedrooms and dining-rooms, its fire-places, mirrors, sconces, bedsteads and the rest, as perfect as in the most extravagant metropolitan hotels in New York or London. With the ship’s smoke rooms, veranda cafés, libraries, lounges, writing rooms, orchestras, telephones from the state-rooms, lifts from one deck to the others, a newspaper printed ready for him each morning as he comes down to breakfast with the latest American and European news transmitted to the ship over-night by wireless telegraphy; with gymnasia to keep him fit and well during the voyage, with Turkish baths, a high-class cuisine, the opportunity of dining either à la carte or table d’hôte without extra charge, whilst all the time the good ship is breaking records each voyage to get him back to mother earth as quickly as ever can be—what else is there left to the ingenuity of man to devise for the increased comfort of the much-pampered and still-grumbling passenger?
THE VERANDA CAFÉ OF THE “LUSITANIA.”
From a Photograph. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co.
FIRST-CLASS DINING SALOON OF THE “ADRIATIC.”
From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. Ismay, Imrie & Co.
[The illustration facing page 300] shows the veranda café just alluded to, which is placed high up in the sky on the Lusitania. Since it faces aft, no inconvenience can be felt through the speed at which the vessel is rushing through the air. But who that stood on the deck of the Clermont or the Charlotte Dundas could ever have imagined that this spacious café should form just one small section of a steamship? It is the Germans who have to some extent set the pace within recent years in steamship luxury. Anxious for the patronage of the wealthy American who was accustomed to the luxurious comforts of the best hotels, the German-American lines began to lead the way in showing that the steamship could be made as glorious within as any shore building, notwithstanding the restrictions necessarily laid upon an object that is subjected to the buffetings of wind and wave. Low ceilings gave way to high; simplicity was conquered by ornate decoration, and this in no vulgar but an exceedingly artistic manner. Stereotyped arrangements of saloons and cabins gave way to something more in accordance with the requirements of good taste and elaborate comfort. A free use of applied art by the highest craftsmen in paintings, carvings and so on; magnificence in place of more or less ample comfort—these have been the principles which have actuated the Teutonic internal steamship arrangements ever since the ’nineties. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse came as a sensation in this respect, and in regard to her decorations alone was the handsomest vessel in the world. The rise of German prosperity, and, therefore, the appearance of what economists demonstrate to be the immediate sequel—an instant desire to expend money in all sorts of self-indulgence—has been followed by a readiness on the part of the steamship companies to put forth the greatest material comfort that is practicable on board ship. German decorative art was in a peculiarly happy position to be able to supply all that was necessary to make a steel tank resemble a palace. Conventional dolphins and anchors were ousted by mosaics and exquisite woodwork, and a new sphere for what was original, but yet suitable, in art was opened. On such ships as the George Washington and the Berlin it is possible to regard a standard of applied art which cannot be easily equalled, still less surpassed by anything of the kind ashore. It was the German ships which were the first to break away from the convention of the long tables which divided up the saloon, and to introduce a number of round tables more in accordance with the interior of a modern restaurant. And what has been found to be best in this respect in the German ships has not been long in being copied in the rival national lines.
