Travel

Tourist Third to New York

[We publish on this page articles and notes which may help our readers in their plans for travel at home and abroad They are written by correspondents who have visited the places described. We shall be glad to answer questions arising out of the Travel articles published in our columns. Inquiries should be addressed to the Travel Manager, The SPECTATOR, 99 Gower Street, W .C.1.] HERE are some impressions of a voyage across the Atlantic by the comparatively new class, Tourist Third Cabin : a class 'which is only a few pounds more expensive than Third Class and yet is as comfortable as anyone need wish. The boat I sailed on was the White Star liner 'Olympic.' My cabin had previously been a Second Class cabin, and when the Tourist Class was started it was transferred, I believe, without alteration. Our dining-saloon was at one time part of the Second Class dining-saloon : the two are still contiguous, and hardly distinguishable. I asked an American lecturer in economics who sat opposite me at meals if he ever travelled by another class. " Why should I ? " he answered. And, indeed, for the man of moderate means, Tourist Third seems - a most excellent way of travelling ; and on this first experience of it, at any rate, I could find no single objection to it : except, perhaps, that the library might well have been larger—it consisted only of a hundred books or so.

Some doubts, of course, are bound to arise in every pros- pective traveller's mind. One of the most urgent is : " What port of fellow-passengers shall I have ? " The shipping com- ,pany announces that the Tourist Class is used by lawyers, doctors, ministers of religion, teachers and students. On the crossing there was certainly a large proportion of the last two ; there were many returning American visitors to Europe, and there was a sprinkling of business men whose interests keep them constantly travelling between America and Europe. As far as I could gather, we had no very distinguished per- sonages amongst us : but this is not always the fact. On the previous crossing to Europe, a Professor at the Sorbonne had been amongst the Tourist passengers. Two of his colleagues, who had been given honorary degrees at an American university, were travelling First Class, with their expenses paid ; but they were shamed by their friend into spending most of their time in the Tourist saloon. The Tourist Class is beyond doubt the friendliest and most sociable of all the classes, and the passengers are as decent human beings as will be found anywhere.

The food is quite definitely admirable. There are luxurious people in the First Class who refused to order their meals from even the largest and most varied of tables d'hote ; and for their convenience there is a very special restaurant, with a bill of fare as large as a dictionary (so to speak). This degree of luxury is almost inconceivable to me : and for anyone, how-

ever fastidious, who is content with excellent cooking, good food, variety of choice, and as much to eat as he could possibly wish, the meals in the Tourist Class will be a most pleasant experience. It is true that one French passenger to

find grounds for perpetual complaint : but he comp ' ed

about everything in the universe, and he meant nothing by it. Our Chief Steward expressed the situation quite well : " It's his sense of humour," he remarked. Meal times are : break-

fast at 8, bouillon and biscuits at 11, lunch at 1, tea at 4 and

dinner at 7. One of the things, by the way, which it was both unexpected and delightful to discover, is that no Tourist passenger (apart from the ordinary tips at the end of his passage) need spend a single penny between Southampton and New York. There is a Barber's Shop, where any articles he might require are for sale ; there is a smoking-room where he can buy tobacco and drinks ; but he will be perfectly comfortable if he deposits all his money with the Purser when he boards the ship and takes it out again on the last day. . The accommodation is not quite so spacious its Second Class accommodation ; and .this is particularly true of the decks.

The open-air space available to the tourist on the ` Olympic ' is a small deck called the well deck, the larger and more exposed poop deck, a small covered promenade and still smaller promenade, which in rough weather we used as a games room. Our "common rooms" were the lounge, the smoking. room, the dining-saloon, and an additional saloon which is used in the season for dining, and out of the season for ping. pong. Almost every evening we had a cinema entertainment in the dining-saloon : on the one night when there was no cinema the Second Class orchestra visited us and played dance music. The usual deck games are available in fine weather. The lounge steward has charge of the indoor

games, of which there are enough for everyone's requirements, and of the before-mentioned library, which, though it was small, seemed to remain almost intact. This was not so much a criticism of its quality as a tribute to the sociability of the passengers.

We are nearing New York as I write. Another ten hours and we should be in harbour. The weather was none too good for the first four days : " moderate gale and rough sea " was our bulletin. Even in those conditions, however, the time went by most enjoyably. I count myself a bad sailor : but, by a judicious use of remedies for sea-sickness, I staved off all disaster, missed none of my meals, and merely looked a little more serious than usual from time to time. For the last two days the sun has been shining, the air has been warm, the sea has been as calm as a lake and the deepest imaginable blue. It is then that the life of the boat wakens : the crossing ceases to be merely time pleasantly spent, and becomes a memo- rable and heightened experience. And in this way the Tourist is as well placed as anyone.

In most people there is a slight feeling of constriction if there are places they may not go to, barriers they are not allowed to cross : and the only passengers who are quite free of the

boat in this sense are the First Class passengers. But if any reader of the Spectator is hesitating over the class by which he

is to travel to America, and wonders whether Tourist Third is really so good as it sounds, he can be assured that the amenities it offers are really remarkable, and that should he choose to travel by it he will receive every consideration from the ship's officials and staff. I would recommend him, however, to choose his boat carefully, to book his passage early, to select his cabin while he has still plenty of choice, and, as soon as he boards ship, to go to the dining-room steward and arrange for his seat at meals.

[Tourist Third Cabin fares : £21 105.428 10s. single £38- £41 10s. round trip. Difference according to size and speed of ship. Additional charges : $10 visa : $8 head tax (returned to visitors who stay less than sixty days). Second Class fares from 130 5s., single ; £53 5s. round trip. All fares slightly higher from spring to autumn.]