Social life onboard the ROYAL CHARTER

Description

Nineteenth-century passenger ships were like microcosms of Victorian society complete with class systems.

The First Class passengers paid the most money for their fares, received the biggest cabins, and were waited on by the ROYAL CHARTER's stewards. Second Class passengers paid a little less and slept in smaller cabins. They were not waited on, but their meals were provided.
Most passengers were Third Class. It is noticeable that Rev Williams Scoresby provides little detail of their accommodation apart from suggesting that all was light and well-ventilated. It is an area of the ship where he, being a 1st class passenger, would not normally venture. Similar ships to Australia did not have cabins for Third Class passengers. Instead, passengers were assigned to bunkrooms and responsible for their own cooking.

The fares paid by First Class passengers varied from 60-75 guineas; Second Class paid between 25-30 guineas; and Third Class, 16, 18 or 20 guineas. Children between the ages of 1-12 were half price. Babies were carried with no charge. Dogs were charged at £5.

Two months is a long time for some 500 people to be in such close proximity to each other. The social events put on by the passengers themselves were a very important way of passing the time. Moreover the crew also worked hard, not to just keep the ship on course, but to add to passenger's comfort through socialising and adding their own fund of stories, songs and musical accomplishments to the entertainments that were devised.

For the First Class passengers there were specially appointed social places, like the saloon lighted by spacious skylights, and entered by a chief companion and stair near the fore part of the poop, and two smaller on the sides near the stern. In addition, female passengers had a boudoir running across the stern in the poop, lighted by the stern windows. The main deck and spar deck were the spaces available for the Second and Third class passengers.

The art of conversation was very much to the fore in the First Class saloon. As the Rev Scoresby observed on 3 March 1855 during the ROYAL CHARTER's first voyage to Australia:

'We had several associates of much information and agreeable manners... I found several very intelligent and pleasant persons, with not a few superior thinking and pious persons.
In the warmer latitudes, in the evening, ladies, with some gentlemen, were gathered in groups, lounging on their low commodious chairs, and amusing themselves and each other with conversation, songs and stories... Miss Holmes with her beautiful voice, cultivated and admirable style of execution, afforded us a frequent and most enjoyable treat.
Sometimes plays were enacted - a court of appeal in the imaginary case of a breach of promise of marriage. The arrangements were extremely ingenious and effective. The judge's chairs covered with opossum rug, having a crimson lining outward; the places for the witnesses, the wigs of the barristers, made of canvas thrummed with short white rope yards were admirable imitations; - bands, robes, etc., seemed to be complete. The young lady, the plaintiff in the case, was well got up in the person, in gay and fitting costume, of the one of the gentlemen passengers. The barristers, four in number, the judge, the jury, were all formally ordered, and the entire proceedings conducted in grave burlesque. The space for council, examinations of witnesses, etc., was carried through with excellent tact and cleverness, and everything so well arranged that the attempt, an amusing and entirely unobjectionable recreation, was completely successful.'

Another evening of entertainment recounted by Scoresby included a 'clever musical performance by two stewards... dramatic recitations, the story of William Tell and portions of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The characters were all capitally dressed in classic costumes, and the parts were very creditably, some of them really well, performed.'

There were other special days of celebration such as birthdays and the firing of eight guns and the serving of a delicate and delicious punch to celebrate the 4th July for the American passengers onboard. The meeting with another ship and the exchange of ship-to-ship greetings would be another way to break up to round of exercise and other recreational activities on deck.

For the Rev Scoresby, it was the Sunday services that he found truly satisfactory - 'under the principal awning, a numerous and attentive congregation, comprising a large proportion of seaman, and second and third class passengers... the serious attention and solemnity were very impressive on the general sympathies.'
The Sunday services appear to have been one of the few occasions when class barriers were not so evident.

The class barriers onboard are perhaps most marked in the image above, where Scoresby refers to spectators from all classes being allowed within the barriers to enjoy a champagne supper and ball organised for St Patrick's Day. Actual participation in the dancing, food and wine is by formal invitation to First Class passengers only. Presumably, Second and Third Class passengers could look, but not join in.


The full text of Rev William Scoresby's 'Journal of a Voyage to Australia and around the World for Magnetical Research' is available by following this link:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uFMpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&... (link opens in new window)