Author spotlight: Mark Twain

When most people think of Mark Twain's work, his famous novels Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn jump to mind. But Twain also wrote a substantial amount of nonfiction humor. One of his most popular works was A Tramp Abroad, a travelogue for his 1878 walking tour of Europe. As he explained in the first chapter, Twain had realized “…that it had been many years since the world had been afforded the spectacle of a man adventurous enough to undertake a journey through Europe on foot.” That being the case, he decided to take the task upon himself. 

Before he could begin his exotic mission, Twain first needed to reach Europe from his home in America. He and his companions chose to sail aboard a vessel called Holsatia. It was an iron-hulled ship that had spent nearly ten years carrying people back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean between Hamburg, Germany and New York City. In Twain’s own words, the crossing aboard Holsatia was simply “a very pleasant trip.”

What is particularly surprising about Twain's mild description is that a "pleasant trip" in his time would probably be considered just the opposite by modern standards. The sheer length of the journey could put off all but the most determined travelers. Today, a jet can fly its passengers from New York to Hamburg in eight hours, yet in the late 19^th century, the same journey by ship took two weeks.

If the time spent at sea weren't enough to make one think twice about the crossing, the ship that Twain traveled aboard was only 340 feet long and 40 feet wide. That might sound large, but consider that a modern NFL football field is 360 feet long and 160 feet wide. This means that Mark Twain spent two full weeks sailing the Atlantic Ocean aboard a vessel that was shorter than a football field and only one-quarter as wide.

Perhaps the size of Holsatia would have been adequate if Twain and his companions were her only passengers. But that wasn't the case. The ship was designed to carry up to 90 passengers in First Class with Twain. It could also transport 130 passengers in Second Class, and 520 more staying "below deck" in Third Class.

In addition, the weather was an important factor that affected Twain’s travel between America and Germany. It was reported in Mark Twain: A Biography by Albert Biselow Paine that the party’s two weeks at sea were stormy. This suggests that a great deal of time had to be spent indoors while aboard ship. With so many people sharing close quarters, modern passengers would doubtless be doubly uncomfortable. But that appears not to have been the case in Twain’s time. Paine said in his biography of Twain that it was a “… rough voyage outside but the company made it pleasant within.”

A final consideration for today’s audiences was the complete isolation that Twain and his companions experienced at sea. He made his journey before telegraphs, telephones, or other such devices were available for long distance ship-to-shore communication. This meant that Holsatia’s passengers and crew were essentially cut off from the rest of world while they were at sea. Medical attention couldn't be summoned for the ill or injured, mechanical difficulties with the ship itself had to be handled by those aboard, and emergency messages from family and friends at home couldn't be received until the ship docked in Hamburg. Albert Biselow Paine commented on the quiet relaxation of being separated from communication in this way, while such conditions are practically unheard of for 21^st century travelers who carry cell phones, internet-connected laptop computers, and PDAs practically everywhere they go.

Given the challenges of reaching Europe, it's interesting that Twain glossed over them when he chronicled his European tour in A Tramp Abroad. It seems to modern readers that the author skipped one of the most interesting parts of his odyssey. Compared to the 21^st century, the reality of oceangoing travel in the late 1800s was a series of almost unimaginable inconveniences, not to mention potential dangers. But in Twain’s case, spending half of April, 1878 on the Holsatia under cramped conditions in bad weather seemed perfectly normal. That was simply what the traveler who wished to see Europe had to tolerate at the time. The hardships were so common that they barely warranted a mention. When Twain described his transatlantic passage as merely “a very pleasant trip,” it seemed to offer little information, but in reality those words spoke volumes.