ABSTRACT
Davis and Tom Osborne started their steamer journey across the Pacific from San Francisco to Yokohama on 23 October 1877. Steamer is perhaps a misleading description as ships were going through a transformation. While owners were equipping vessels with the latest means of propulsion, captains were still not prepared to rely on engine power alone and in most cases the traditional sails were retained and used. Like many travellers Davis was apprehensive of the effect of wave motion. The first day out of San Francisco he tells us he was seasick but after that initiation both he and his cousin were unaffected until much later during a stormy passage to Canton, and for a few hours off Aden.
The average daily itinerary was dull but undoubtedly productive.
Our programme for the day is, reading in the morning, reading and writing in the afternoon, and writing and talking in the evening. We read on the hurricane desk and write in the smoking room, where I am now. It is hardly used by the other passengers, but the purser and Freight Clerk and Watchman sometimes talk too loud or too much for our comfort.
(Tour; 8 November 1877; ‘S.S. Belgic’)