The Indian Ocean (52 page)

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.
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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'
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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.'
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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 going out to India, and later coming from the colonies to serve in World War I, travelled in rather squalid and crowded conditions, while their officers had three-quarters of the ship, complete with cabins, lounges, smoking rooms, libraries and fine food. Wilfred Pearce, travelling with his mounted regiment to war in Europe in 1914, complained of 'a great deal of pinching... ones hammock, towels and soap very often disappear. I have also lost my overcoat several times.' The
troopers had to look after their horses, and 'Doing stables means a good deal of work as the horses have to be exercised a good deal and all the stalls cleaned.'
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On immigrant ships bound for the colonies conditions again were often crowded and uncomfortable. Sometimes they even helped on board. Albert Loaring was on a ship with both steam and sail. Once he and others helped bring in sail, and then 'the Captain had us down in his Cabin, and gave us a glass of rum each that had helped [bring in the sail]. A Glass full of Raw Rum full not half full. He is a Splendid Captain. You would not find another Captain like him.'
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Another steerage passenger returning to London from Australia had to do his own washing up, and there were no baths: 'when it gets hot weather we may have the hose turned on us early of a morning.' The ship had a refrigerated room for meat and poultry, but steerage had very poor food and some paid extra to the steward to get better. One night he saw the butcher 'weigh an ice-preserved Murray cod of fourteen lbs for the rich mans dinner.' Even church services and impromptu entertainments were segregated according to class. Another migrant had a very hot passage through the Red Sea. Four or five of his fellows 'went off in a dead faint this afternoon, and some of the 1st class passengers going the same way, the Captain put the ship to go around.' Later he noted that 'There is a fancy dress ball tonight in the 1st Saloon Deck, but we can see nothing of it'
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On one typical passenger liner in the 1920s there were 732 third-class passengers, and twelve first-class. The latter shared 'A' deck with the officers, doctor and chief steward, and had a dining room at the forward end. Third class were on 'C' deck, 248 in berths in permanent cabins, and 434 in portable cabins fixed in compartments which sometimes were used for cargo. On 'B' deck there was a dining room with long benches, a smoke room and social hall, and some promenade space too.
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I have read masses of travel accounts as I thought about this book. My absolute favourite traveller is an unlikely one. Her name was Juanita Harrison, a poor black woman born in Mississippi around 1890. Her account gives excellent impressions of travel for the masses, and reveals a most engaging and refreshing character. I will try not to quote too much of her idiosyncratic account. Her central attitude was that 'theres not so much difference in Human Bines once you mix Them up.' In March 1929 she travelled third-class on the
Orana
, of the Orient line, going from Suez to Colombo.

Well the Orana are a Queen. I went straight to see about my cabin as I intended to get off if I didnt get what I asked for. the Purser said I wanted all jam. he gave me an uper Berth in the quiet foot of the Ship with Two lovely modist young Greek Girls one are going To Sydney to be married. Her skin are so fair she have never used Powder the other are a very modist Flapper we keep the Cabin neat and all retire at the same hour so everything are peasful in that line.... On boad are Hundered of English going to Australia at the expence of the Government young couples with their children and single young men and Girls from 17 to 22 and they are certainly a bright healthy handsome ship load. the Third class are lovely
large wide decks a swiming pool everything like a pin then a large laundry with soft water and ironing boads. at night moost of the Girls sleep on deck since it became warm they use the First Deck and the Boys the Second. we had chicken [her favourite] only one day and that day I was sleeping under a life boat and did not hear the bell. I did not care but the others felt sorry for me.

A week later 'the time have gone so fast I fell like asking for my money.' At stops along the way she got out and about with no hint of racism or condecension: 'Think what a turist miss not to do such things.'

On a French ship she enthused 'Its good to be with the French again and get a change of Food. most of the Passangers are French. an English Lady an her young Lady Daughter sit by me at table they have lived down here 5 years but know nothing about India.' Then after Colombo

Yesterday I had to use my coat it being our first rough sea and while most of them was nurseing their sea sickness I to keep it off scrub my Cabin floor washed the mirrows port hole and the seat that run across the wall. The Boy had let it go for two days. I found his brush and soap and felt fine altho the boat was jumping up and down at each end. I am the first woman on deck each morning I enjoy seeing the Sun come up out of the Sea I was pleased it was rough yesterday it was the first time we had roost chicken plain lettuce salad and icecream.

Later, in the Red Sea, 'It is ever so home like on this Steamer everybody do just as they wish. the French, Germans and Itilians are so much nicer to travel with than the English and yet the English are lovely in their country.'
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Juanita Harrison seems to have brought her sunny, optimistic and tolerant nature with her, and preserved it through a remarkable nine years of travel around the ocean. For others however the voyage was a liminal time. Victor Turner brought this term forward in his analysis of people travelling on pilgrimage, but it has subsequently been used to apply to all types of travel. His key notion was that in the liminal stage of a journey, that is on the actual journey as compared with setting out or arrival, there develops a strong feeling of communitas amongst the travellers. This occurs 'when the subject is in spatial separation from the familiar and habitual... [it stresses] generic rather than particularistic relationships... it is any condition outside or on the peripheries of everyday life, and a time in which the rules recognized as legitimate by the political and intellectual elites at a given time' are less operable.
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This notion has some utility, but must be used with considerable hesitancy. For example, the governor's daughter used the steward for sex, but clearly felt no sense of communitas with him. More generally, we noted the rigid divisions aboard most ships, so that if anything 'the rules recognized as legitimate' were reinforced. On the ships carrying settlers to the new colonies, officers read out detailed
instructions before the ship sailed, and there was rigorous checking for stowaways and disease. E.M. Forster, bound for India in 1912, took a pith helmet, a deck chair, plenty of visiting cards, a cummerbund for night train travel, chlorodyne, quinine, and avoided celluloid underclothing for his time in India. Off the coast of Arabia he recorded that the other first-class passengers had all gone over to dressing, but he was still in morning dress as he could not find his evening tie. All this hardly sounds very liminal, and nor were his relations with his fellow passengers any different from what they would have been on land. 'They think us very queer on board, but are not uncivil & term us 'the professors.' The women are pretty rotten, & vile on the native question; their husbands better.' Equally predictable and routine, Forster became very friendly with a young officer who, according to the editor of the letters, was 'a dedicated homosexual.'
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How then were people different when they travelled by sea? For some it was a long rest, a welcome break from routine, as Mark Twain noted with great approval:

there is no mail to read and answer; no newspapers to excite you; no telegrams to fret you or fright you – the world is far, far away; it has ceased to exist for you – seemed a fading dream, along in the first days; has dissolved to an unreality now; it is gone from your mind with all its businesses and ambitions, its prosperities and disasters, its exultations and despairs, its joys and griefs and cares and worries. They are no concern of yours any more; they have gone out of your life; they are a storm which has passed and left a deep calm behind. There is no weariness, no fatigue, no worry, no responsibility, no work, no depression of spirits. There is nothing like this serenity, this comfort, this peace, this deep contentment, to be found anywhere on land. If I had my way I would sail on for ever and never go to live on the solid ground again.
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Voyages had different meanings for different people; much depended on the purpose of the voyage, and the previous life experience of the traveller. In 1822 Fanny Parks ended up on a ship carrying troops, but fortunately they were from a regiment where many of her relatives had served, so she had a fine time flirting with the young officers. Yet she also noted perceptively that 'Perhaps no friendships are stronger than those formed on board ship, where the tempers and dispositions are so much set forth in their true colours.'
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For those travelling out to serve for the first time in India, it was 'a very necessary period of quarantine between two quite different spheres of existence.' The voyage also played a role in socialising new chums, as they were given, or had forced upon them, advice from the old hands. Leonard Woolf wrote poignantly, though fifty years after the event, about his setting out for Ceylon. He called his departure his 'second birth'. He wrote how 'The umbilical cord by which I had been attached to my family, to St Paul's, to Cambridge and Trinity was cut when, leaning over the ship's taffrail, I watched through the dirty, dripping murk and fog of the river my mother and sister waving good-bye and felt the ship begin slowly to move down the Thames to the sea.' He took with him
ninety large, beautifully printed volumes of Voltaire, the 1784 edition. After some initial doubts, he found that he could get on quite well with his fellow passengers; indeed 'the world and society of the boat are a microcosm of the macrocosm in which he will be condemned to spend the remainder of his life.' When he got to Colombo he found that 'There was something extraordinarily real, and at the same time unreal in the sights and sounds and smells.' If you stay at home everything has a 'subdued, flat, accepted reality' but if you travel 'one feels as if one were acting in a play or living in a dream.' All this said, Woolf spent only seven years in Ceylon. He then went on leave and stayed with his family in the house they had lived in for thirty years in Putney. He got back together with his old Cambridge friends, fell in love with Virginia Stephen, and reverted to his life before he left, apparently unaffected by his seven years in a very different environment.
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