Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-09-19
OCEAN TRAVEL In 1886.
FAST STEAMERS, CHEAP FRElGHTS.
ENGLANO'S OCEAN MONOPOLY.

ENeLAND's OCEAN MONOPOLY.
Steerage Profts-The TramPs Of the Sea.
sa5, oOO, 900 Spent Abroad Yearly by
Americans-English Railway Peculiari-
ties-The Penny Versus the Dollar.
Especial Correspondence
IyyAS STEAMER, CITY OF RICHMOND,
ATLANTIC OCEAN, S15 MILES
FROM QUEENSTOWN, Sept
am writing this letter in the cabin OF a
big ocean steamer. My light comes from u
little round portfolio the size of a tin wash
basin, and the cabin is Of the size of a 6xlU
hall bedroom. Ny only furniture IS q camp
stool. Il sofa and two beds which run along
the wall like the berths Of a sleeping car, one
ADORE another. At the back of the room
there is a stationary waShstand, and over this
a l2xl4 inch looking glass in a walnut frame.
The iron ceiling Of this room is about seven
feet from the toor. 1t is studded with the
heads of rivets as big as an old-fashioned
cent, and, like the rest of the room, Is painted
white. A 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
{ IlN Illle III "lIudO", nv
piece of brussels carpet covers the floor, ana
an electric button at the side OF the door
will bring me a servant at the touch OF my
finger. | take my three full meals a day IN
a dining saloon as large as that Of a good
sized hotel, and I have a promenade walk
about the upper deck seventeen times or
which makes just one mile. My p Is
made up OF eighty ladies and gentlemen ana
boys and girls of all ages, compilations anu
sizes, from the little lS-months-old baby, VINO
is going to Belfast with her grandfather, u
member OF the Produce Exchange OF New
York, to the stiff, gray-haired supreme court
Judge Of Connecticut, who Is about 10 Visit
his son, the consular clerk at Liverpool.
Then there is the population OF the seconu
cabin, who have quarters below us III the
stern Of the boat, and the hundreds IN the
steerage, who are below on the other slide
near the prov. All classes seem to Ire happy.
We have had no rough weather, though wo
are now beginning our ninth day at sea, anu
the time, with reading, chatting, walking,
sleeping and eating, flies as fast rs II 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 as the railroad
train. The first ocean steamer was bu'lt
near New York in 1919, and she made u trip
across the Atlantic one year later. She was
named the Savannah: she was OF 80 tons
burden. and when sh0 came into Liverpool,
after a passage Of twenty-five days, she was
the wonder of al. the world. The biz ocean
steamship of to-day is Of from 1909 to 500
49,. - ,l,, ,,,l..s Inp mascara from Now
York To Queenstown i'll from six days ami u
few hours to twelve OF thirteen days. some
shipowners now assert that the passage
across the Atlantic will soon be made IN tour
days, and the engineer Of this vessel tells mo
that fast ocean travel is fully Us safe, though
more expensive, than slow travel. The coal
consumed by the seven days steamers Is
nearly three times as much rs 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 n day, whereas the City
of Richmond, Of about the same size, but u
ten days steamer, requires only from lOO 10
10 toms per day. 1t costs about % ton
to buy this coal and put it IN the furnaces OF
the ships engines, 50 that tue difference he
| tween the seven days and ten days steamers
in the cost Of coal alone is over 81 ,Wo per
day.
Can You appreciate how much 800 tons Of
coal a day meanSs Fifteen tons OF coal is n
! yearly allowance for q small family III an
eight room house. The daily consumption of
the Etruria would keep twenty such families
for a year and the 1900 tons which this ship
carrie, ON each trip, would moro than supply
~ ILL.,. - ,,.IN,r fn,,ilinp fnr that finn.
The coal used here is slack. 1t is stored i'll
great vaults and iifty-four men are required
to put it in the furnaces. The ship has twenty
seven furnaces, each Of which Is as big around
Gs u ton OF hay OF the farmers wagon and
about twice as long. They are away down IN
the bottom of the ship, and as | 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 were kept at
them all day shovcling coal, Dantos Inferno
did not seem very far off AID Hades was per
soniied before me,
The faster gteamers have 100 mon to attend
to their furnaces. They must be kept going
night and day and the labor IS very hard.
The furnaces are 10 hot that the mel must
drink great quantities OF water, and here
they mix the water with oatmeal and each
man consumes gallons daily. This is ncccs-
sary to keep up the perspiration. In such u
heat il "A man cannot sweat lie will die.
This immense cost OF coal IN the great
ocean steamers has given rise TO a class Of
cheaper steamers. which Mr. Shangleur, II
leading cotton shipper Of Georgia, tells me
urc known rs the "tramps OF the sea" They
are cutting the life ont uf the carrying trade
of the more expensive lines, and have madc
freight rates materially lower. These boats
are iron shells with just enough machinery
and furnishing 10 run them. They do not
carry passengers, and they can set along Oh
about twenty tons Of coal a day. They have
, crews Of from twelve 10 twenty hands TO run
them, and they will so anywhere to get n
cargo, and will carry it any place If pail Tor
it. 1t used to be that cotton shipped ~ Eng
land had to he arranged for us to carriage long
beforehand. Now the ocean steamers wsl
take il at any time. II they do not the ship.
per has only 10 telegraph for one Of these S"a
trampS, and he will come and take il for him
ut us low a rate and under Us good insurance
as the great lines. These sea tramps don't
care where they 20 30 thcy have u cargo.
To-day they may land at Liverpool with n
ship load of cotton and wheat, AMI next week
be sailing out from England with supplies for
the Congo valley. They are owned, | am told
by responsible parties, and can make money
Oh freight rates which would ruin the Cunagd,
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 u little over =
a bale or less than one cent a pound, and the
freight of bacon is not much over g. a ton.
This ship carries great quantities Of fresh
meat and cheese, and it has refrigerators
which will carry 4OO tons or $40 1000 pounds OF
fresh meat. This is almost entirely Of beef.
The cattle are killed and dressed In New York
the night t~foTe the steamer leaves, and the
meat is sewed up in cloths and hung up in
the refrigerators. Engines kceDa draft of cir
rushing through the meat during the whole
ten days passage, and when it is landed at
Liverpool it is in better condition than wher
it started.
One Of the greatest receipts Of these big