The Smoking room
This may be the proper place to mention that the ship’s library, of nearly five hundred volumes, is exceedingly attractive and well selected. It contains many standard works in history, travels, and fiction, including some of the most recent publications. It also contains valuable books of reference, in the shape of atlases and gazetteers, and a representative selection of music, including Scottish, English, and Irish songs and glees. The man or the woman would be very difficult to please who could not find within the ship itself, with its pianos, organ, and library, ample resources for spending pleasantly and profitably three or four weeks at sea.
The promenade deck is exceptionally spacious, and affords ample room for those recreations with which time is wont to be beguiled in tropical seas. The first-class state-rooms are fitted up in a very handsome, luxurious style, with iron spring-beds, sofas, and lavatories, all constructed on the most approved principles.
The Main-Deck.
The intermediate sleeping-berths differ but little, in point of comfort and convenience, from those assigned to first-class passengers; and the dining-saloon, which has its own piano and organ, is infinitely superior to what we were accustomed to in old-fashioned steamers. The third-class accommodation is altogether superior to that provided in the general run of ocean-going steamers.
The sanitary arrangements include some special features, one of which is an improved system of ventilation with compressed air. Marble baths, and all the most approved lavatory appliances, are provided in sumptuous fashion. A novel luxury in the ‘Castle’ liners is a barber’s shop, with a rotatory hair-brushing machine worked by an electric motor. Indeed, scarcely anything is lacking which could be desired by the most fastidious traveller on shore.
One of the greatest charms of the ship is the electric lighting, which is carried out on a perfect scale. Nothing has done so much as the introduction of the electric light to make ocean-travelling comfortable and safe. It is bright and cleanly, and it is always available. It is an immense advantage to be able to turn on a bright light in your state-room at any moment. The evening hours in the saloon, instead of being dreary, are looked forward to with pleasure, and are thoroughly enjoyed. In point of fact, the saloon is quite as brilliant at night as during the day.
The decks also are brightly lighted up at night with electric cluster lights, as well as with single lamps, so that dancing and other recreations can be carried on with the greatest comfort. The ship’s band of ten or twelve instruments is also an excellent institution, which does much to relieve the tedium of the voyage.