Ocean Passenger Travel - 1891

1891 Article on Ocean Passenger Travel covered topics including Overview of Transatlantic Travel, Room on the Early Steamers, The Collins Line, The Inman Company, Beginnings of the White Star Line, The Speed of the 1890 Steamships, Transatlantic Passengers and the Buildup of Fleets, Provisions and Meals on an 1890s Ocean Liner, Procedures for processing Immigrants onboard Steamships, and The Importance of the Immigrant Trade.

• Chapter 1: Overview of Transatlantic Travel
  There are, undoubtedly, many men and women in New York to - day who went down to the Battery and cheered and waved their hands in greeting to the first steamship that entered this port from Europe. This important event took place on April 23, 1838, and it was doubly interesting and significant because not only the first transatlantic steamship came to anchor in the harbor on that day, but the second also; steam travel across the sea thus beginning with a race that was earnestly contested and brilliantly won. Furthermore, it was a race that attracted infinitely more attention than any of the contests that have succeeded it.
• Chapter 2: Room on the Early Steamers
  On the most unpretentious modern steamship there is room enough in the chambers to put a small trunk, and even other articles of convenience to the traveler; and one may dress, if he takes reasonable care, without knocking his knuckles and elbows against the wall or the edges of his berth. Nowadays, too, the stateroom is usually large enough to accommodate three or four persons, while some are arranged to hold six and even eight persons.
• Chapter 3: The Collins Line, The Inman Company, Beginnings of the White Star Line
  The Collins Line vessels had not only a dining-room sixty feet long by twenty feet broad, but had a general saloon sixty-seven feet by twenty feet. These were divided by the steward's pantry. Rose, satin, and olive woods figured prominently in the decorations; there were rich carpets, marble - topped tables, expensively upholstered chairs and sofas; a profusion of mirrors; all the panels and the saloon windows were ornamented with coats-of-arms and other designs emblematic of American freedom; all of which made, according to an English writer, a " general effect of chasteness and a certain kind of solidity."
• Chapter 4: The Speed of the 1890 Steamships
  During the year 1890 she made eight trips to the eastward, and the average of each trip from Sandy Hook Lightship to Roche's Point, Queenstown Harbor, was six days, four hours, and five minutes; the average of her eight trips to the westward from Roche's Point to Sandy Hook Lightship was six days, five hours, and forty-four minutes. On the four trips each way from August to November, inclusive, her average west-bound voyages were six days and forty-two minutes, and the east-bound voyages six days and fifty-three minutes.
• Chapter 5: Transatlantic Passengers and the Buildup of Fleets
  Viewing the increase of oceanic travel it appears that the financial depression of 1884 kept many people at home who otherwise might have crossed the ocean. After that distressing season had passed travel resumed its normal condition, and an increase may be noted with each year. When finances in this country had been somewhat adjusted we find that 86,302 cabin passengers landed at New York in 1888.
• Chapter 6: Provisions and Meals on an 1890s Ocean Liner
  A great many passengers are more anxious about the table-fare upon an ocean steamship than about the staterooms, saloons, smoking-rooms, and other matters of transient comfort. There is really no need for worry about the table. There is always enough, and on the best boats there is always a great variety.
• Chapter 7: Procedures for processing Immigrants onboard Steamships
  In any event, each passenger had to prepare his own meals at the cook's galley, for the number of cooks furnished was always insufficient. The kitchen is never commodious at the best, aboard ship, and it needs no imagination to picture the struggle of immigrants, one against another, for a turn at the fire. The government requisition is still in force, but it is substantially a dead letter, for not only the British but all European steamship companies now provide ample fare for all passengers.
• Chapter 8: The Importance of the Immigrant Trade
  It must not be supposed that passengers are all immigrants. Odd as it may seem, there are many world wanderers who cross and re-cross in the , who travel over great parts of the world, and who, in their class, are as independent as the more luxuriously accommodated cabin people.