The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-09-24
THE COST OF RUNNING A BIG
OCEAN STEAMSHIP.
The Receipts Are Considerably
Greater, and the Great Ships Un-
doubtedly Pay-Details That
Will Astonish People.

When the Normannia starts on an
eastward voyage she carries nearly 5000
tons of coal in her protected bunkers.
Some of this is American and some for
eign soft coal, and it costs about S3. q
ton. The sooty stokers daily shovel into
her roaring red furnaces between $50 and
300 tons. The expenditure for coal runs
Just short of $1,000 a day, or nearly
$4,000 for the voyage. The cost of the
gallons and gallons of oil used to keep
her ponderous triple-expansion engines,
her dynamos, her numerous smaller en-
gines, her pumps, and so on, running
smoothly, combined with the coal bill, is
$500.
The salaries of the big ships company
are not an unimportant factor in the ex-
pense account. Among the 300 persons
who look after the. working of the racer
and the comfort of her passengers are,
besides cool-headed Captain Hebich,
eight officers, one surgeon, twenty-five
engineers and machinists, two pursers,
five boatswains, twenty-eight seamen,
ia fremen, sixty-fve walters and wait
resses, twenty-five cooks, bakers and as
sistants, two carpenters, one barber and
fourteen skilled musicians. The total
wages of these for trip Of eight days is
about $4,000, not counting perquisites.
Captain Hebich receives the highest
salary. It varies between $4,000 and
$4,000 a year, and depends somewhat on
the earnings of the ship, of which he re-
ceives small percentage. This is the
way the shippers of all the colossal rae
ing craft are paid, and it IS not likely
that any of them are going to cease rae
ing, or to be censured for It, as long as
q fast trip means money in their pockets
and in the Golfers of their company.
Every hour the Captain Of tho City Of
New York saves means saving In coal
alone of $50.
Next in Importance to the Captain Of
an ocean speeder is the chief engineer.
He is not as frequently visible to the
cabin passengers as his gold-laced supe-
rior, and nobody makes much fuss over
him, but he is, in the opinion of his en-
ployers, very big man indeed. He is
the man who makes the great ship "git
up and git" He submits daily reports
of how things are going on down below
to the Captain. He tells how many tons
of coal he is using, how much indicated
horse power he obtains, and the number
of revolutions the ships propellers make
aminute. If he doesn't get as much
speed out of the clanking twin giants as
the Captain thinks he ought to, the Cap
tain pats him on the back and tells him
to whoop her up, like good fellow. It
is essential to the Captains interest that
he should be friendly with the boss of
the mighty machines For his great
work the chief engineer. receives $3.50 q
month and his board, which is equal to
that Of the cabin passengers. The chief
officer receives $50 a month, which IS
more than the captains of many steam
ships of the second class get.
The food and drink consumed by
passengers and crew during recent trip
Of the Normannia cost about SIG, 900.
This is the complete list of the things
that were necessary to make life aboard
the luxurious floating hotel something
like dream: Two thousand five hun
dred bottles of red wine, 1000 bottles Of
Rhine wine, 1000 bottles of champagne,
1900 bottles of cordials, $1,000 bottles
of beer, eighty kegs of beer, 400 bottles
of ale and porter, $500 bottles of mineral
water, 81, 900 gallons of drinking water,
10000 pounds of potatoes, $4,000
pounds of beans. peas, and so on, $500
cans of fruit, 1900 pounds:of jellies, tarts
and biscuits, forty-fve baskets of vege-
tables, 1000 pounds of butter, 1900
pounds of cheese, 10000 eggs, $500
pounds of sugar, 1900 pounds Of coffee,
1000 pounds of tea, 250 pounds OF
chocolate, $50 gallons of milk, 10000
apples, 1900 oranges, 1000 lemons, 400
glasses of preserved fruits, 120 barrels Of
-four, sixty-fve gallons of lce cream, H.
900 pounds of beef, $4,000 pounds OF
mutton, 1900 pounds of ham, smoked
beef and bolognas, 1000 pounds of veal,
700 pounds of bacon, 600 pounds OF
pork, 600 pounds of game, 500 pounds
of canned meat, 25O pounds Of lamb,
thirty barrels of preserved meat, twenty
barrels of salt pork, $4,000 pounds OF
fish, 45O chickens, $50 ducks, sixty
turkeys, sixty partridges, and fifty geese.
From the foregoing facts and figures
it may be safely said that one trip of the
Normannia costs the Hamburg American
line not less than s25, 1000. To offset
this expenditure, which does not include
the cost of insurance, the Normannia must
carry many passengers and some freight:
The number of her passengers varies, OF
course, according to the season She
carries in midsummer sometimes nearly
500 first and second cabin and about
300 steerage voyagers. The average
price of first cabin passage IS about
S110, and that of q second cabin about
$50. The average price of steerage ac-
conmodations is S22. Tho Ireceipts
from all classes of passengers on q good
midsummer trip are over Soo,ooo.
Usually the Normannia carries $40 tons
of frei ght, which, at the transportation
rate of $40 ton, amounts to $4,000.
The cost of loading and unloading is
borne by the company. In the dull sea-
son theb ig twin-serew ships de not make
much, but their receipts throughout the
; year are large enough to warrant the dec
| laration that they are great successes imam