The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-16
OCEAN TRAVEL IN 1886
FAST STEAMERS, CHEAP FRElGHTS
ENGLANO'S OCEAN MONOPOLY.
Steeragc ProGts-Thc Tramps OF the Sea.
S25,ooo,ooo Spent Abroad Yearly by
Americans-EnsIish Railway PeculIari-
ties-The Penny Versus the Dollar.
Special correspondcncel

Americans-EnsIish Railway PecuIIari-
/ ties-The Penny Versus the Dollar.
Especial Correspondcncc,I
! INMAS STEAMER, CITY OF RICHMOND. J
ATLANTIC OCEAN, Sf5 MILES
! PROM QUEENSTOWN, Sept J
am writing this letter in the cabin OF a
! big ocean steamer. Ny light comes from n
/ little round portfolio the size of a tin wash
! basin, and the cabin is of the size of GxIO
hall bedroom. My only furniture is a camp
/ stool, 4 sofa and two beds which run along
! the wall like the berths of q sleeping car, ono
/ above another. At the back OF the room
there is a stationary washstand, and over this
a l2Nl4 inch looking glass in a walnut frame.
! The iron ceiling nf this room is about seven
/ feet from the floor. 1t is studded with the
heads of rivets as big as an old-faShiOned
cent, and, Ike the rest of the room, is painted
white 4 silk portiere swings TO and fro in the
breeze from its brass rod over the door, and
the color of this, like that of the curtains of
my little round window, are crimson. \
piece of brussels carpet covers the floor and
an electric button at the side of the door
VIII bring me a servant at the touch of my
finger. take my three full meals day in
n dining saloon large as that of good
sized hotel, and L have a promenade walk
about the upper deck seventeen times of
which makes just one mile My company is
boys and girls of all ages, compilations and
sizes, from the little 1S-months-old baby, who
is going TO Belfast with her grandfather a
member of the Produce Exchange of New
York, to the stiff, gray haired supreme court
judge of Connecticut, who is about to visit
his son, the consular clerk at Liverpool.
Then there is the population of the second
cabin, who have quarters below in the
stern of the boat, and the hundreds in the
Sfppra who Ialnyr- ba
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 as it does on
shore. Tomorrow we viii 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 as the railroad
train. The first ocean steamer was built
near New York in 1919, and she made a trip
across the Atlantic one year later. She was
named the Savannah; she was of $50 tons
burden, and when she came into Liverpool,
after passage of twenty-five days, she was
the wonder of all the world. The big ocean
steamship of to-day is of from i 200 to 5000
tons, and she makes her passage from New
York 10 Queenstown in from six days and n
few hours to twelve or thirteen days. Some
shlpowneTs now assert that the passage
across the Atlantic Will soon be made in four
days, and the engineer of this vessel tells me
that fast ocean travel is fully as safe, though
more expensive, than slow travel. The coal
consumed by the seven days steamers is
nearly three times much as that consumed
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
ten days S>eamer, requires only from 100 to
10 tons per day. It costs about 50 ton
to 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 81, 600 per
day
Can you appreciate how much 500 tons of
coal day mcanss Fifteen tons of coal is a
yearly allowance for a small family in an
eight-room house. The daily consumption of
the Etruria would keep twenty such families
for year and the l 800 tons which this ship
carries on each trip, would more than supply
a village of eighty families for that time,
The coal used here is slack. It is stored in
great vaults and ffty-four men are required
to put it in the furnaces. The ship has twenty
seven furnaces, each of which Is as big around
as a ton of hay ON the farmers wagon and
nbout twice Is long. They away down in
the bottom of the ship, and as 1 crept in and
out among them yesterday, by the aid of the
chief engineer and his lantern, and saw the
blaze of their entrances, felt the consuming
heat of their surroundings and talked with
the swcaty, sooty men who We're kept at
them all day shoveling coal, Dantes Inferno
did not seem very far off and Hadcs was per
sonined before me.
The faster steamers have 100 men to attend
to their furnaces. They must be kept going
night and day and the labor is very hard.
The furnaces are 50 hot that the men must
drink great quantities of water, and here
they mix the water with oatmeal and each
man consumes gallons daily. This is neccs-
sary to keep up the perspiration In such a
heat If a man cannot sweat he VIII die.
This immense cost of coal in the great
ocean steamers has given rise to class of
cheaper steamers, which Mr.. Shangleur, a
leading cotton shipper of Georgia, tells me
are known as the "tramps of the sea" They
are cutting the life out of the 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 get along on
about twenty tons of coal a day. They have
crews Of from twelve TO twenty hands 70 run
them, and they will go anywhere to get a
cargo, and viii carry it any place if paid for
it. 1t used to be that cotton shipped to Eng
land had to be arranged for as to carriage long
beforehand. Now the ocean steamers VIII |
take it at any time. If they DO not the ship
per has only to telegraph for one of these sea !
trampS, and he viii come and take it for him
at As low rate and under as good insurance !
rs the great lines. These sea tramps don't /
care where they so so they have a cargo |
To-day they may land at Liverpool with a /
ship load of cotton and wheat, and next week /
he sailing ont from England with supplies for I
the Congo valley. They are owned, 1 am told, Z
by responsible parties, and can make money /
on freight rates which would ruin the Cunard !
the Inman or the White Star
Freight rates now very low, and few of 4
the big steamships lines are making money. /
Cotton is taken to Europe for a little over IS 4
a bale or less than one cent a pound, and the |
freight OF bacon is not much over 50 a ton
This ship carries great quantities Of fresh /