The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-10-09
$4,000 A TRIP.
THE COST OF RUNNING a ZIG
OCEAN STEAMSHIP.
The Receipts Arc Considerably
Greater, and the Great Ships I'm
doubtcdIy Pay-Details That
Will Astonish People.

nc lnitpplllCChI o'Sefii'iip hoihi'hh"
is not quite as big rs the twin screw
boats of the White Star and Inman
lines, but her expense account, owing to
the greater length of her voyage, is just
MS formidable. The cost Of running her
from her dock in the New Jersey town
of Hoboken to her dock in the German
town of Hamburg, is about the same rs
the cost of running the City of Paris
from New York to Liverpool.
When the Normannia starts on fin
eastward voyage she carries nearly 5000
tons of coal in her protected bunkers.
Some of this is American aud some for
eign soft coal, and it costs about So. SO a
ton. The sooty stokcrs daily shovel into
her roaring red furnaces between 25O and
300 tons. The expenditure for coal runs
lust short of $1,000 day, or nearly
$4,000 for the voyage. The cost of the
gallons and gallons Of oil used to keep
her ponderous triple-e expansion engines,
her dynamos, her numerous smaller en-
gines, her pumps. and so on, running
smoothly, combined with the coal bill, is
$780,.
The salaries of the biz ships company
arc not an unimportant factor in the ex.
peuse account. Among the 300 persons
who look after the working of the racer
and the comfort of her passengers are,
besides cool-hcaded Captain Hebich,
eight officers, one surgeon, twenty-five
engineers and machinists, two pursers,
five boatswains, twenty eight seamen,
ia firemen, sixty-tivc walters and wait
resses, twenty-five cooks, bakers aud as
sistants, two carpenters, one baroer and
fourteen skilled musicians. The total
wages of these for trip of eight days is
about $4,000, not counting pcrquisites.
Captain Hebich receives the highest
salary. 1t varies between $4,000 and
$4,000 q year, and depends somewhat on
the earnings of the ship, Of which he re-
ccives 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
fast trip means money in their pockets
and in the Golfers Of their company.
Every hour the Captain of the City Of
New York saves means saving in coal
alone of $50.
Next in importance to the Captain OF
an ocean spccder is the chief engineer.
He is not as frequently, visible oStha
cabin passengers as his gold-laced supc.
rior, and nobody makes much fuss over
him, but he is, in the opinion of his en-
ployers, q 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 clankiug 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. 1t
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 Il
month and his board, which is equal to
that of the cabin passengers. The chief
officer receives $50 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 S16, 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
drcd bottles of red wine, 1000 bottles of
Rhine wine, 1000 bottles of champagne,
1900 bottles of cordials, 1900 bottles
of beer, eighty kegs of beer, 400 bottles
of ale and porter, $500 bottles of mineral
water, $1,000 gallons of drinking water,
10000 pounds of potatoes, $4,000
pounds of beans. peas, and SO Oh, $500
cans of fruit, 1900 pounds of jellies, tarts
and biscuits, forty-tive 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, 100 barrels of
flour, sixty-five gallons of Ice cream, H.
600 pounds of beef, $4,000 pounds of
mutton, 1900 pounds of ham, smoked
beef and bolognas, 1000 pounds of veal,
700 pounds of bacon, 6OO pounds of
pork, 600 pounds of game, 500 pounds
of canned meat, $50 pounds of lamb,
thirty barrels of preserved meat, twenty
barrels of salt pork, 10000 pounds of
fish, 450 chickens, $50 ducks, sixty
turkeys, sixty partridgcs, 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 $4,000. 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 voyagcrs. The average
price of a first cabin passage is about
$110, and that of a second cabin about
$50. The average price of stccragc ac-
commodations is S22. The receipts
from all classes of passengers on good
midsummer trip are over $50, 1000.
Usually the Normannia carries $50 tons
of freight, which, at the transportation
rate of $40 a ton, amounts to $4,000.
The cost of loading and unloading is
borne by the company. In the dull sea-