A Floating Palace

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 23, 11 June 1908, Page 13

A Floating Palace

■ ♦ - A short time ago we were informed that a German Shipping Company had placed a contract for building two monster vessels for the Atlantic trade with a Belfast firm. It would appear to the ordinary landsman that the building - of vessels of large dimensions had already reached its limit, and that the passenger traffic across the Atlantic was already sufficiently well catered for. But apparently the competing companies think otherwise. Even those who - have travelled by these floating palaces have very often little idea of the great accommodation they provide, or what it costs to feed a full complement of passengers during*the voyage from Liverpool or Southampton to New York. Many of these steamships are larger, more costly, and accommodate more guests than an up-to-date*hotel in London or New York. A hotel ashore can be built and equipped for about £200,000. The cost of an ocean hotel is from £500,000 to £800,000. A hotel at sea consumes more food in six days than a great metropolitan hotel in six weeks. . In a voyage across the Atlantic a liner with a fair complement of passengers serves 36,000 meals for individuals. This is on the basis that the total number of persons aboard is 1,500, each of these being lodged, fed,- and served an average of four meals a day. When this total is \ swelled to 5,000 persons, as- in the case of the largest and most modern of ocean-going vessels, the task becomes so great as to bewilder the one who tries to figure out just how it is accomplished. As the guest of an ocean hotel, one can have an ordinary room for £2 a day, or a suite of apartments with a private bath for £20 a day. In either room or suite of rooms the bed is just as comfortable — in the room a berth, in the suite a brass bedstead and a little extra fresh air, that is all the' difference. The £2-a-day man may push the electric button summoning the room steward as often as he chooses, and receives practically the same degree of attention as the £20-a-day man on the deck above. The same condition of affairs holds good at the dining ~ table, on deck, and in the smoking room. All the usual accompaniments of hotel life, such as the barber shop, bootblacking stand, and cigar counter, are at hand. If the guest cares for an out-of-door stroll, he c&n walk for nearly an eighth of a mile without turning, just as he can on the verandah of a great hotel -at a watering-place. There is a well-selected library, two pianos, a, full-sized church organ, and all sorts of games, deck sports, and other forms of amusement. An orchestra plays during the dinner hour, a concert is enjoyed every evening, and in fine weather the captain causes the promenade deck to be enclosed with canvas and bunting, lights, it with any number of glittering lanterns, and gives a ball for the passengers. Hungry passengers think the steward quite as important a personage aboard ship as the captain. He can estimate ■ almost to an egg just how many eggs nis passengers will eat in a day, and hence can make ample provision for the voyage. Long experience has taught him that -he will use eggs at the rate of two a minute for every twentyfour hours. Thus no -passenger vessel of^any size goes to sea with less than 17,000 eggs aboard. The steward estimates with almost the same degree of accuracy the needs of the passengers , as regards meat, poultry, fish, and fruit. The cold-storage rooms of an ocean liner are amazing in their extent and contents. While in port the chief steward makes out his order for~> supplies, and more than one caterer is necessary to fill it. Supposing he is provisioning the ship for 1,500 persons "for three weeks — plans, are always made to meet an emergency. He~requires from 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of meat; 50 to 100 barrels of flour, .5 tons of .potatoes, 1,000 quarts of cream for icing, and a host of other features of a well-ordered larder. The steward is, too, in charge of the vessel's silver, crockery, and glassware. That this is no

sinecure may be judged from the fact that aboard a transatlantic liner on the run from New Yo^c : to Southampton, the average' breakage of a voyage includes 1,006 plates, 280 cups, 438 saucers, 1,213 tumblers, 200 wine-glasses, 27 decanter's and 63 bottles, the total- resultant loss being over £100. ' . " At ' sea, regardless d£ wind and weather, the .steward is at all times a housekeeper in what to him is a rolling, pitching, tossing hotel. His duties do not end, with seeing that food and drink are properly served the guests. He must look after the comfort of every passenger, even to the steerage complement. If a passenger finds the hair mattress of his berth too hard and asks 'for an air mattress,' the steward must- supply it. Fourteen thousand napkins and twice that many towels must be ready for every voyage. First-cabin guests in many instances pay as much as £4 a day for room and board, and most of them try " to obtain, value received, unless seasickness prevents. To meet the requirements of his position the steward divides his hotel into departments. He has a laundry, where the towels, sheets, napkins, etc., are washed and dried by machinery, and ironed in a big machine that looks like a printing press. He has a printing office, where are printed bills of fare as well as the concert programmes. Sometimes one of these printing offices afloat prints a daily newspaper, to which the passengers contribute, supposed to -be an epitome of the day's doings aboard ship,- as well as arecord of- any interesting facts that have come to the captain via the wireless telegraph apparatus, with which most sea-going vessels are now equipped. The most important department in the steward's charge, in many respects, is that consisting of the kitchens. Besides the main kitchen in the first and second cabins and in the steerage,- there are separate distributing kitchens for the smoking room, the ladies' caf6, and for meals served in 'staterooms or on .deck. The chef, who is directly responsible to the steward, has under him from twenty to fifty cooks, besides the bakers, dishwashers, and the men who prepare vegetables, open oysters, and look after other details. The majority' of an ocean liner's population is housed iv the steerage, the least inviting of the. quarters devoted to passengers. Several stories below the lowest staterooms of the second cabin, passengers, the occupants of the steerage find their " environment of the plainest sort. Paying for his passage only a .fraction of the sum charged for first and second cabin accommodations, the steerage passenger sleeps on one of a tier of iron ' frames or bunks," and furnishes his own covering. His food is of the plainest sort. Served in huge receptacles, although clean, it does not invite appetite if one is accustomed to better surroundings. A knife, fork, and spoon are furnished, and the heaviest crockery or tin dishes used. The steerage passenger is helped directly from the steaming kettles or great basins in which the food is brought from the ship's galley, as the kitchen is known. The dull season in ocean travel is the winter time. Tourists are -few, and the passenger lists of some of the big liners occasionally look like the roster of a skeletonised regiment. Not nlany years ago one of the largest ocean liners sailed into New York with but a single passenger in the first cabin. Had he been a dignitary of the highest degree, instead of a^ plain business man, he could hardly have received more attention. _