Essays of Travel | Page 2

superiority in diet; but this, strange to say, differs not only on

different ships, but on the same ship according as her head is to the east
or west. In my own experience, the principal difference between our
table and that of the true steerage passenger was the table itself, and the
crockery plates from which we ate. But lest I should show myself
ungrateful, let me recapitulate every advantage. At breakfast we had a
choice between tea and coffee for beverage; a choice not easy to make,
the two were so surprisingly alike. I found that I could sleep after the
coffee and lay awake after the tea, which is proof conclusive of some
chemical disparity; and even by the palate I could distinguish a smack
of snuff in the former from a flavour of boiling and dish-cloths in the
second. As a matter of fact, I have seen passengers, after many sips,
still doubting which had been supplied them. In the way of eatables at
the same meal we were gloriously favoured; for in addition to porridge,
which was common to all, we had Irish stew, sometimes a bit of fish,
and sometimes rissoles. The dinner of soup, roast fresh beef, boiled salt
junk, and potatoes, was, I believe, exactly common to the steerage and
the second cabin; only I have heard it rumoured that our potatoes were
of a superior brand; and twice a week, on pudding-days, instead of duff,
we had a saddle-bag filled with currants under the name of a
plum-pudding. At tea we were served with some broken meat from the
saloon; sometimes in the comparatively elegant form of spare patties or
rissoles; but as a general thing mere chicken- bones and flakes of fish,
neither hot nor cold. If these were not the scrapings of plates their looks
belied them sorely; yet we were all too hungry to be proud, and fell to
these leavings greedily. These, the bread, which was excellent, and the
soup and porridge which were both good, formed my whole diet
throughout the voyage; so that except for the broken meat and the
convenience of a table I might as well have been in the steerage
outright. Had they given me porridge again in the evening, I should
have been perfectly contented with the fare. As it was, with a few
biscuits and some whisky and water before turning in, I kept my body
going and my spirits up to the mark.
The last particular in which the second cabin passenger remarkably
stands ahead of his brother of the steerage is one altogether of
sentiment. In the steerage there are males and females; in the second
cabin ladies and gentlemen. For some time after I came aboard I
thought I was only a male; but in the course of a voyage of discovery

between decks, I came on a brass plate, and learned that I was still a
gentleman. Nobody knew it, of course. I was lost in the crowd of males
and females, and rigorously confined to the same quarter of the deck.
Who could tell whether I housed on the port or starboard side of
steerage No. 2 and 3? And it was only there that my superiority became
practical; everywhere else I was incognito, moving among my inferiors
with simplicity, not so much as a swagger to indicate that I was a
gentleman after all, and had broken meat to tea. Still, I was like one
with a patent of nobility in a drawer at home; and when I felt out of
spirits I could go down and refresh myself with a look of that brass
plate.
For all these advantages I paid but two guineas. Six guineas is the
steerage fare; eight that by the second cabin; and when you remember
that the steerage passenger must supply bedding and dishes, and, in five
cases out of ten, either brings some dainties with him, or privately pays
the steward for extra rations, the difference in price becomes almost
nominal. Air comparatively fit to breathe, food comparatively varied,
and the satisfaction of being still privately a gentleman, may thus be
had almost for the asking. Two of my fellow-passengers in the second
cabin had already made the passage by the cheaper fare, and declared it
was an experiment not to be repeated. As I go on to tell about my
steerage friends, the reader will perceive that they were not alone in
their opinion. Out of ten with whom I was more or less intimate, I am
sure not fewer than five vowed, if they returned, to travel second cabin;
and all who had left their wives behind them assured me they would go
without the comfort of their presence until they could afford to bring
them by saloon.