Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-09-17
OCEAN TRAVEL IN 1886.
FAST STEAMERS, CHEAP FREIeHTs.
ENcLAND's OCEAN MONOPOLY.
Steerage ProAtS-Tho Tramps OF the Sea-
$3.50 900 Spent Abroad Yearly by
Americans-Eaglish Railway Peculiari-
ties-The Penny Versus the Dollar.

FROM QCEENSTONN ~ Stpe J
lam writing this letter in the cabin CT a
h.g ocpan steamer. My light comes from q
EsI!. round portfolio the size of a tin wash
,,,.n, and tue cabin is Of the size OF a 6xIO
ealr bedroom. Ny only furniture Is u camp
s,o.l. u sofa and two beds whiSh run along
IN. wall ike the berths OF a sleeping car, one
above another. At the back OF the room
there is a stationary waShStand, and over TINS
a l4xl4 inch looking glass in a walnut frame
The iron ceiling Of this room is about seven
feet from the floor. 1t is studded with the
heads Of rivets as big as q old-fashloned
cent. and, like the rest Of the room, IS painted
white. A silk portiere swings TO and fro the
braeze from its brass rod over the door, and
the color of this, like that of the curtains VI
my little round window. are crimson. n
piece of brussels carpet covers the floor, and
an electric button at the side Of the door
viii hiring me a servant at the touch OF my
finger. l take my three full meals a day IN
a dining saloon as large Is that Of a good
sized hotel, and l nave a promenade walk
about the upper deck seventeen times OF
which makes lust n mile. My company Is
made up of eighty ladies and gentlemen ana
boys and girls Of all ages, complexohS ano
sizes, from the little ~lS-mOnths-old baby, VINO
IS going to Belfast with her grandfather, n
member Of the Produce Exchange OF New
York, to the stiff, g~ray-haired supreme court
Judge OF Connecticut, who Is about 10 NSiS
his son, the consular clerk at Llverpooi.
Then there is the population OF the second
cabin, who have quarters below US III the
stern of tho boat, and the hundreds In the
steerage, who are below on the other side
near the prov. All classes seem To be happy.
We have had no rough weather, though we
are now beginning our ninth day at sea, and
the time, with reading, chatting, walking,
sleeping and eating, flies as fast Us 1t does on
shore. Tomorrow we will be at Queenstown,
and the day following the ship will lie in the
docks at Liverpool.
Ocean travel is rapidly changing, and the
steamboat is improving as fast aSthe railroad
train. The first ocean steamer was buht
! near New York III 1919, and she made a trip
, across the Atlantic one year later. She was
named the Savannah; she was Of 80 tons
burden, and when sho came into Liverpool,
after a passage Of twenty-five days, she was
the wonder of all the world. Tn big ocean
steamship of to-day is OF from 400 TO SUN
tons, and she makes her passage from New
York to Queenstown in from six days ana u
few hours 10 twelve or thirteen days. Some
s~hipowners now assert that the passage
across the Atlantic will soon be made i'll four
| DAYS. and the engineer Of this vessel tells me
that fast ocean travel is fully Us safe, though
/ mora expensive, than slow travel. h coal
consumed by the seven days steamers IS
nearly three times as much as that consumer
by the ten days steamers, and fuel Is one OF
the largest items in the cost OF steamship
travel Some Of the fast Cunard steamers
burn $40 tons Of coal a day, whereas the City
of Richmond, of about the same size, but a
ten days steamer, requires only from lO 70
10 tons per day. IL costs about % ton
10 buy this coal and put it in the furnaces OF
the ships engines, so that the difference be-
tween the seven days' and ten days steamers
in the cost of coal alone is over Sl,OVO per
day.
Can you appreciate how much 800 tons o.
coal q day means. Fifteen tons of coal Is q
yearly allowance for a small family III an
/ eight-room house. The daily consumption Of
the Etruria would keen twenty such families
for a Year and the 1880 tons which this ship
/ carries OF each trip, would more than supply
a village Of eighty families for that time.
The coal used here is slack. 1t is stored Ill
great vaults and iifty-four men are required
| toput il in the furnaces. The ship has twenty
seven furnaces, each Of which Is rs blg around
Us a ton Of hay on the farmers wagon and
about twice as long. They arc away down III
the bottom of the ship, II as l crept In and
out among them yesterday, by the aid OF the
chief engineer and his lantern, and saw the
blaIe Of their entrances, felt the consuming
heat of their surroundings and talked with
the Swcaty, SOOty men who were kept at
them all day shoveling coal, Dantes Inferno
did not seem very far oil and Hades was per-
SOniied before me.
The faster steamers have 100 men 10 attend
to their furnaces. They must be kept going
night and day and the labor is very hard.
The furnaces are so hot that tho men must
drink great quantities OF water, and here
thee mix the water with oatmeal and each
man consumes gallons daily. This IS neceS-
Sary to keep up the pe~rSpiration. In such u
heat if u man cannot sweat he will die.
This immense cost of coal in the great
ocean steamers has given rise to a class of
cheaper steamers, which Mr.. ShanSlcur, a
leading cotton shipper Of Georgia, tells me
are known as the "trampS Of the sea" They
are cutting the life out ut tho carrying trade
Of the more expensive lines, and have made
freight rates materially lower. These boats
are iron shells with Just enough machinery
! and furnishing TO run them. They do not
carry passengers, and they can get along on
about twenty tons of coal II day. They have
crews of from twelve TO twenty hands to run
them, and they will 60 anywhere to get u
cargo, and will carry it any place II paid foE
it. 1t used to be that cotton shipped to Eng
lanihad 70 be arranged for as TO carriaSe long
beforehand. Now the ocean steamers VIZ
take it at any time. Ii they do not the ship
per has only 10 telegraph for one Of these sen
trampS, and he will come n a it for him
ut rs low n rate and under rs good insurance
as the great lines. These sea trampS don't
care where they 80 so they have u cargo.
| To-day they may land at Liverpool with O
/ ship load of cotton and wheat, and next week
he sailing out from England with supplies for
the Congo valley. They are owned, l aa told,
by responsible parties, and can make money
on freight rates which would ruin the Cunard,
the Inman or the White Star.
Freight rates are now very low, and few OF
the big steamships lines are making money,
Cotton is taken To Europe for q little over );
q bale or leSS than one cent a pound, and tho
freight Of bacon is not much over IS "A ton
This ship carries great quantities of frest
meat and cheese, and it has refrigerator
which will carry 400 tons or 10000 pounds Of
fresh meat. This is almost entirely of beef
The cattle are killed and dressed in New EOrf
the night before the steamer leaves, and the
meat is Sewed up III cloths and hung up il
the refrigeratorS. Engines kceDa draft of all
rushing through the meat during the Who'll,
ten days passage, and when it is landed al
Liverpool it is in better condition than wher
il started.
One of the greatest receipts Of these bis
steamship lines from their steeragt
passengers, or the emiSrantS. This ship caI
carry over 1000 Storage passengers, AID i
accommodates them very well, putting me:
and women by themselves, and having sep
arate apartments for married people. The
emiSrants bring their own beds and bedding
and their dishes, the last Of which are often
II tin. The ship feeds them, and it can give
them plenty Of bread, butter, soups and fresh
meat every day, ut a cost per passenger Of