Service, Speed, Style … and Steerage by MIKE FIELD
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BOSSSummer'11#7:Layout 1 6/27/11 10:13 AM Page 22 DIXON 1916-2011 Service, Speed, Style … and Steerage BY MIKE FIELD Seventy-five years ago it was transport, not cruising, that kept the great ships afloat 22 BOSS ᔢ SUMMER 2011 BOSSSummer'11#7:Layout 1 6/27/11 10:13 AM Page 23 LISTEN … in the roll and lap of the about one of the great ships and some - ocean’s waves you can hear the names of one who made a passage to a new life that bygone era of the mid-1800s to early in one. For many, those stories are not 1900s: the Mauretania and Lusitania , the of teacups and caviar, but rather Oceanic and Europa , Queen Mary and the cramped quarters, seasickness and dis - Normandie , the Olympic and her ill-fated comfort. Whether above the promenade sister, the Titanic . They were among the deck or below it, those voyages were an great ocean liners in the age of steam, event to be remembered and talked before jet travel, when crossing the sea about and passed on. No wonder then demanded time and money and—for the the White Star Line could charge today’s privileged elite in first class—a sure sense equivalent of $75,000 for a first-class of style and elegance. suite aboard the maiden voyage of its A great-uncle of mine was born doomed Titanic ; even the poor folks in aboard the liner City of Rome as it third class—technically called steerage crossed the Atlantic and all his life bore because they were housed in the lower the name “Seaborne” to show it—a not decks in the vicinity of the ship’s propul - uncommon practice in those days. sion and control mechanisms—had to Perhaps your family, too, has a story scrape together about $35 ($620 today), WWW . DIXONVALVE . COM SUMMER 2011 ᔢ BOSS 23 BOSSSummer'11#7:Layout 1 6/27/11 10:13 AM Page 24 the equivalent of two or more with first-class passage that still draw our weeks’ wages to book passage. fascinated attention. Here is the last meal But steerage, in fact, was the first-class passengers aboard the where the money was. Titanic ate before hearing an evening Previous page: Illustration of the Although the great ship lines never let on, concert, wandering off to bed and ulti - Queen Mary ocean liner. This page, the one-way steerage class passengers mately claiming the majority of the left to right: The main dining room bound for the Americas to fill an spaces in the lifeboats: oysters and Beluga of the Titanic , the largest ship of unquenchable thirst for abundant cheap caviar followed by cream of barley soup; a its day; an advertising poster for labor were the ocean liner’s bread-and- third course of poached salmon steaks the Cunard Star Line, featuring butter. Typically the ships carried two or then filet mignon in wine; next sauteed details of the Queen Mary’s layout; three times the number of third-class pas - duck breast with figs chased with a lemon the Mauretania in dry dock in sengers as those in first—and often in sorbet to clear the palate; finally a roast Southampton in 1922; today’s cramped, austere and uncomfortable con - guinea hen with raspberries and a Belgian massive Allure of the Seas , with ditions. Earlier, in the 19th century, third- endive salad to conclude. After the its 16 decks, and space for 6,300 class passengers slept packed together in Titanic’s great tragedy in 1912, the num - passengers. immense dormitories (which is why the ber of lifeboats, the height of the interior steamship Adriatic could transport 50 watertight bulkheads and the strength of passengers in first class and more than the ships’ hulls all changed. However the 800 below decks in steerage). But by the elegance, sophistication, fine dining and second decade of the new century steer - glamour remained. age passengers were housed in compact Ocean liners, designed to take on the cabins with bunks, cold running water seas in all seasons and all weather, look and toilets; daily meals were provided in a distinctly different than the floating behe - common dining area. White Star Line’s moths that are the modern cruise ship. three great “Olympic-class” sisters— This year the cruise industry expects to Olympic , Titanic , Britannic —even had a book 16 million passengers worldwide in third-class common area with its own ships like the $1.4 billion Allure of the piano, though steerage entertainment was Seas , which entered service last December left strictly to the passengers’ own making. carrying 6,300 passengers on 16 decks Yet nearly 100 years later it is the with a 1,400-seat theater, ice skating rink starched white collars, the Worth gowns and its own Starbucks. The emphasis in and air of assured entitlement that came these ships is on grand open spaces, exte - Touching History Not forgotten, and not entirely gone, the great ocean liners of the last holder of the Blue Riband award—is tied up in Philadelphia past—or parts of them—may still be seen in various forms here while volunteers attempt to raise millions to refurbish her. Some and there. Although most great ships typically have a life span of are laid up and out of service and threatened with likely decon - only decades before being overcome by fatigue and newer tech - struction for scrap. About a dozen from the 1950s and ’60s are nology, there are about three dozen classic ocean liners still still actively sailing as cruise ships in smaller markets focusing around today. Some are floating, such as the very early S.S. Great on a more intimate passenger experience. Although all of the Britain (1843), now a maritime heritage site in Bristol, England, or great coal-burning four-funnel liners have been sunk or tourist attractions like the RMS Queen Mary , famously converted scrapped, you still can visit the beautifully hand-carved, oak-pan - to a hotel and conference center in Long Beach, Calif. eled dining room from the Olympic at the White Swan Hotel in One of the greatest of the ocean liners—the S.S. United States , Alnwick, England. —MIKE FIELD 24 BOSS ᔢ SUMMER 2011 BOSSSummer'11#7:Layout 1 6/27/11 10:13 AM Page 25 rior cabins most differentiates life aboard the great watch the ocean roll endlessly by. with windows classic liners from the cruise ships of Every trip aboard an ocean liner was and, increas - today was the relative lack of diversion made to feel like a unique and special ingly, their own provided to the passengers. occasion. Yet beneath it all lay a kind of balconies, and a Ocean liners were big ships going steady routine. In her 24-year career, the plethora of shops, theaters, pools, restau - somewhere at great speeds with pur - Olympic —when not called into wartime rants and other amenities. When asked pose. By today’s standards, the enter - service as a troop transport ship—plied by The New York Times recently what tainment options offered by the ship’s the Atlantic transit on a four-week cycle. cruise passengers desire most, Royal management were scarce, and for the It started with a seven-day voyage from Caribbean President and Chief most part, passengers were expected to Southampton to New York, followed by Executive Officer Adam Goldstein amuse themselves. This they typically 3 ½ days to restock and board new pas - answered simply: “Options, options, did by writing letters or keeping jour - sengers, then a longer return trip with variety, variety.” To accommodate their nals; reading in the ship’s well-stocked additional stops at Plymouth and customers’ near-constant need for dis - lending library; smoking, playing cards Cherbourg before reaching traction, modern cruise ships locate and gambling in the men’s lounge; lis - Southampton. Again a 3 ½-day turn - almost all their common areas and most tening to the ship’s orchestra (usually around was required before beginning of their cabins in the unconstrained consisting of a piano and small string the next voyage. Marvels of industrial space above decks, giving them the section); and dining, drinking and age technology, with miles of cabling, peculiar appearance of floating condo - dancing at elaborate formal evening pipes, and wiring of incredible complex - miniums stacked into the sky. soirees. There may have been a small ity, the real miracle for these grand ships The classic ocean liner, by contrast, indoor pool, more suitable for plunging is that for so many journeys, life on features a distinct hull, typically painted than lap swimming, and a gymnasium board was quiet and uneventful. black and high in freeboard, which is with the latest in modern exercise It was almost enough to make one the distance from the waterline to deck equipment. There was shuffleboard and forget the great risk that any sea voyage level. Many of the cabins and public deck quoits, which is a British-invented entails. “When anyone asks me how I spaces are thus contained within the game in which rope rings are tossed at can best describe my experience in hull itself, making them smaller, with a stationary peg. In fair weather there nearly 40 years at sea, I merely say, lower ceilings, and giving them small was shooting practice at clay targets off uneventful,” remarked the man who stout portholes rather than large flimsy the ship’s stern. And for many passen - first commanded the Olympic . A year windows, which would easily wash out gers the highlight of a crossing was sim - later, E.J.