LUXURIES OF THE TABLE.-PRICES OF PASSAGE. 409 furled, and the ship, feeling the action of another moving power, became inclined upon her side, and commenced her solitary course over the trackless ocean. During a favorable breeze, whilst the sea is smooth, and the vessel is rapidly approaching the desired port without producing the delays and sickness, that usually fall to the lot of those whose "path is on the mountain wave," there may be a degree of pleasure in sailing in one of these packet ships, derived from the agreeable society of fellowpassengers, and from the novel scenes of the ocean. So spacious and highly decorated are the cabins, and so well supplied with luxuries is the table, that were it not for storms, and the common malady of sea-sickness, a voyage across the Atlantic might almost be deemed an excursion of pleasure. Most of the provisions usually found in a good inn are furnished in these packet ships.— If the American steamboats are termed floating palaces, these American ships may be termed floating hotels. The stock of poultry and other fresh meats is commonly sufficient to last during the voyage, and even new milk is to be had in as great quantities as sea-sick cows can yield it. The best wines and fruits in season are provided. It thus requires but little more preparation to embark on this voyage, than to enter a mail coach for a journey. The captains of the packets conduct themselves, in regard to their passengers, with the urbanity of gentlemen, discovering in their manners but little of the roughness of the sailor. The price of a passage in the cabin from Liverpool to New-York is about $164 (thirty-five guineas) and from New-York to Liverpool $154, (thirty guineas,) the premium of exchange being included. This difference of price is caused by the remarkable prevalence of westerly winds, the passages of all the line of packet ships for the last six years having been made on an average in thirty-nine days 36 VOL. II. 410 ORNAMENTED CABINS.-STATE-ROOMS. from Liverpool to New-York; whilst the passages in the opposite direction have been made on an average in twenty-three days. The cabins of the packet ships are more beautifully and even splendidly decorated than some of the Royal pleasure yachts of Europe. A degree of surprise is experienced on descending from the deck into the cabin, and viewing a room sixty or seventy feet in length, lined with panels and mouldings of varnished mahogany and curled maple, contrasting the dark clouded veins of the wood of the Indies with the light wavy curls of that from the North American forests. Pillars of white marble, or of richly carved mahogany with gilded capitals, are arranged along each of the sides of the cabin, the intermediate spaces between which are occupied by the latticed doors and windows of the state rooms. Each state room is furnished with two beds, or berths, for the accommodation of a couple of passengers. The latticed doors admit a free circulation of fresh air, and the convex glasses or lenses, inserted in the deck planks above, allow sufficient light to enter to enable the occupants of the state rooms either to read or write. Mirrors are so adjusted at each extremity of the cabin as to multiply the reflections of the pillars and ornaments, presenting apparently at a first glance an interminable vista, stretching to a remote distance between rows of these pillars. These decorations, and the glittering brass ornaments, which are kept nicely polished whilst the vessel lies in port, present a pleasing spectacle of the modern luxuries in naval architecture. The cabin appropriated to the use of the ladies is also elegantly furnished, and is provided with a piano-forte and other musical instruments to serve as a pastime during the many tedious hours spent on ship board. Much of the show and glitter are, however, calculated for exhibition LADIES' CABIN.-SILK CURTAINS. 411 whilst the vessel rests motionless in the quiet waters of a harbor, and for exciting the admiration of the numerous visitors who throng to view them even in the port of Liv erpool, as objects of curiosity. It would seem to the observer, who leisurely gazes at the damask curtains, forming the drapery of the berths or beds in the little state rooms, that sea-sickness could never intrude beneath the glossy folds of the silken canopy, to interrupt the soft slumbers of those who may repose beneath them. These curtains as well as the Brussels carpets which overspread the floors, are wisely kept for show, to tempt passengers to venture upon the deep. Before the vessel is out of sight of land, the passenger hears for a few minutes the rustling of silk in the cabin, accompanied by an unusual bustle of the servants. On retreating from the deck he may be as much surprised at the sudden change of the drapery of his bed, from damask silks to cotton ginghams, as at the magical transition from the ball dress to the kitchen scene in Cinderella. Quite as surprising a change would take place in his estimation of the enjoyments of sea voyages, could the same spectator, who in a quiet harbor admires all these luxuries, have a single peep into the same cabin during a storm, to witness the confusion that prevails amongst the inhabitants of these pretty apartments, after the vessel has been for a short time rolled and tossed by the billows of the ocean, when the floors are almost as much inclined as the roof of a house. Whilst our ship was sailing slowly near the southern coast of Ireland, at the distance of five or six miles from the shore, two boats approached the ship, each rowed by half a dozen ragged Irishmen. The first boat was freighted with only one small fish, which proved so stale that it was no sooner received on board than the captain hastened to relieve the ship of the pestiferous atmosphere that sur 412 IRISH BOATMEN.-LAST VIEW OF EUROPE, rounded it; and agreeably to his orders it was forthwith tossed overboard. In the second boat was a small pile of potatoes, which would scarcely have filled a peck measure; around which seven eggs were rolling to and fro in the bilge water of the boat. This formed truly a pitiful stock of merchandise to be bartered for as much rum and tobac CO as twelve sturdy fellows would desire, to compensate them for rowing their boat six or eight miles out into the open sea. They however made up for the deficiency of their merchandise in point of value, by their shrewd and irresistible mode of begging. The captain having bestowed a bottle of rum and a hank of tobacco upon the crew of each boat, one of the men, without loss of time, thrust an end of the black hank into his mouth and clenched his teeth upon it. The propriety of returning a proper acknowledgment seemed suddenly to occur to him, and without relaxing the hold with his teeth, he growled between them an indistinct expression of thanks; raising his eyes in rapturous delight as the bitter juices began to pervade and affect his palate, he exclaimed "Tobacco is surely the swatest herb that grows." The green hills of Ireland soon began to assume a hazy hue as the breeze freshened, and the last lingering outlines of Europe finally seemed to be dissolved in the misty verge of the ocean. The stranger who has there enjoyed the fair scenes of green vales and mountains, and the hospitality of her cities, cannot but experience, as he commences his weary voyage across the ocean, those feelings which are so warmly expressed by the quaint verses of Bowles. "Fair scenes! ye lend a pleasure long unknown The farewell tear which now he turns to pay Delightful haunts, he will remember you," BROAD SAILS OF THE SHIP.-A CALM. 413 With all the canvass spread to a favorable wind, our gallant ship moved over the face of the water, as if she spurned the waves, as the poets express it, dashing them aside before her bow in heaps of foam, and rushing through them as through banks of snow with her sides half buried in the white wreaths. The immense force exerted by the wind in propelling a ship of 500 tons may be imagined when it is stated that the sheets of canvass composing the sails of our packet ship, whilst braced sharp, extend above 200 feet in length and nearly 90 feet high. On this great surface of canvass the wind presses with a force nearly equal to a pound on each square foot. The winds are not always favorable, and what is even still more tedious, there is often no wind at all. During a calm, the gently undulating water assumes a glassy polished surface, and the sails left unfurled hang like the drapery of curtains, in wrinkled folds and festoons from the spars, the broad sheets swinging with heavy flaps against the masts and ropes, as the vessel rises lazily over the sluggish undulations. The surface of the ocean, during a calm, does not settle down into a level expanse, like that of a lake, but seems to remember the storms that have lashed it into fury, even after "Heaven's mild lustre is reflected from the wave." If you look abroad over the water during a calm, you soon weary with the uniformity of the prospect; whilst on the deck all seems spiritless and dull. Even the sailors partake of the general listlessness during a calm, although it brings with it a respite from their severest toils. During a protracted calm, a great variety of amusements is resorted to for pastime. In one part of the ship, the passengers divert themselves by sinking empty bottles to the depth of five or six hundred feet. Although carefully corked and sealed, the pressure of the water being at this depth nearly two hundred pounds upon the cork, it is al 36* VOL, II. |