The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [180]
These class distinctions, landed society transferred to the ocean, were also in evidence in leisure cruising. One of the earliest cruises for pleasure of which we have details was that undertaken in the Sunbeam, a screw composite three-masted schooner, with two engines, and bunkers which took 80 tons of coal. Its length was 157 feet, and it displaced 531 tons. On its first long voyage, in 1876–77, those on board were Thomas Brassey Esq. MP, Mrs Brassey, one son, three daughters, Hon.
Figure 7 Study of yacht Sunbeam. Unmounted. Produced by William Lionel Wyllie (artist). © National Maritime Museum, London
A.Y. Bingham, E. Hubert Freer, Commander James Brown, RN, Captain Squire, T.S. Lecky, RNR, and Henry Percy Potter, surgeon. The crew of twenty-three included a sailing master, and a forecastle cook, who catered to the crew. The passengers were looked after by another cook, a cook's mate, a nurse, a lady's maid, and a stewardess.126 Thomas Brassey was a very considerable figure in England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in 1836, he was an MP from 1868 to 1885, was created a baron in 1886, and rose to an earldom in 1911. He had various jobs, and served on several commissions, yet also found time to cover some 400,000 miles in the Sunbeam, being away for a year or so at a time. His wife left a fascinating account of the voyage of 1876–77. Her husband helpfully wrote in the foreword that 'The practised skill of a professional writer cannot reasonably be expected in these simple pages'127 yet the book sold well and was translated into French.
The account gives a marvellous impression of cruising by an elite at the height of imperial certainty. Lavish meals and fine wines were served every night. To ensure fresh supplies live animals were taken on board and slaughtered as needed. In Valparaiso they took on six sheep, sixty chickens, thirty ducks, and forty-eight pigeons. They held church services on board every Sunday, and Mr Brassey did the sermons. It was a most leisurely progression, with long stops at any port of interest to them. Most often they called on the governor when they disembarked, and sometimes they turned out to be acquaintances, or even old school or college mates of Thomas's. Some impression of the tone can be gained from a comment when they were in Colombo: 'There are a great many venomous snakes in Ceylon, but they always get out of the way as fast as they can, and never bite Europeans.' In Galle they took on three black firemen, 'two from Bombay and one from Mozambique, a regular nigger' who coped with the heat of the engine room very well, so 'it was fortunate we met with these amiable salamanders.' Standards were rigorously maintained. 'We always observe Sunday by showing a little extra attention to dress, and as far as the gentlemen are concerned, a little more care in the matter of shaving.' In Alexandria they met their old friend Richard Burton, and in Malta they entertained HRH the Duke of Edinburgh. When they anchored off Cascais, in Portugal, there was another vessel already there with three ladies on board. This created a real dilemma for Mrs Brassey as to 'whether they, as first anchored in the bay, should call on us, or we on them, as probably the greater travellers and out longer at sea.'128 The maritime experience here is very much in the background. The Brasseys took their landed society, and opinions, and rank, with them, and could as well be doing a tour of Europe by land as be on board a ship.
Life on the passenger liners for those not in first or second class was rather different. Troopers