To Olivia L. Clemens
10 and 17 November 1873 • SS City of Chester en route
from New York, N. Y., to Liverpool, England;
and Queenstown, Ireland
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00982)

On Shipboard,
3 days out from N. Y,

[ Liy Livy] darling, you really don’t know what a steamship is. The Batavia is 316 feet long. This ship is nearly 500. The great dining saloon is square, stretches from side to side of the vessel; has 8 tables in it (each seating only 14 people[)]; is brightly lighted by long rows of side-ports & by [skylights]; is elegantly “papered” with polished fancy wood. The two ends are just great mirrors framed in fluted columns of polished dark wood; there is a piano & elegant book cases; the ship does not rock & pitch,—so we do not need racks on the table; there are no staterooms anywhere near,—so you eat in peace & hear [ s ] no nasty sounds of vomiting in your vicinity. When we passed the Batavia she was wildly rolling & plunging, but our ship was as steady as a prairie.1

The smoking room is prettily upholstered & lighted with big windows, & has six marble-top card-tables in it.

My port is so large that I can lie in my berth (on a delicious spring mattrass) & read, as if out of doors.

At night I can read with perfect ease (& all night long,) for a swinging lamp hangs above my head. I can lie there & pull a knob & a flood of clean water gushes into my wash-bowl. At any hour of the whole night I can turn over & touch an electrical bell & a steward comes in a moment. My comb & tooth brush lie always on a smooth, level [service] & the trifling motion of the ship never disturbs them. Wherever I place my shoes or any other article, there they remain.

The ship & the smoking room & ladies’ upper deck saloons are warmed by steam.

Our first day’s run (simply under [ sta steam]) was over 350 miles.

The hallways are wide & light & comfortable. The stairways are of elegant workmanship, & easy of ascent & descent. No danger of breaking one’s neck, & no need to take hold of the balusters. The ship is thoroughly well ordered, officered & served. The captain has commanded steamers more than 20 years & never lost one.

The library is large & singularly well selected.

It is a charming ship. The times slides by in comfort & satisfaction & I seem to enjoy every hour of it. I do so regret taking you in the Batavia, for this captain would have been just as kind to you & would have put the thousand resources of the ship at the service of yourself & the Modoc. Your journey would have been a hundred times pleasanter.2

Mr. & Mrs. Nobles of Elmira are on board.3 Methodist preacher. Very pleasant, companionable people they are—though when he gets to talking fine I suspect him of culling from old favorite sermons of his.

I love you, darling, & every day I grow more & more uneasy about you, for I have [left] you very short handed in nurse-help at a time when you cannot exert yourself without peril.4 I shall immediately telegraph to ask how you are when I reach Queenstown & shall look for an answer at Liverpool or London. Good-bye my darling.

Telegraphed you. Also wrote from N. Y., & also by the pilot.5

[in ink:] Mrs. Samℓ. L. Clemens | Forest street | Hartford | Conn. [in upper left corner:] America | [rule] [postmarked:] [queenstown] b no18 73 [and] [boston] dec 3 paid

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 The Batavia had departed from New York on the same day as the City of Chester (“Shipping Intelligence,” New York Tribune, 8 Nov 73, 5).

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2 The City of Chester, under Captain Kennedy, was a ship of the Inman Line, founded in 1854 by William Inman. This “canny young Englishman” had made his company a highly successful rival to Cunard by offering cheap and comfortable accommodation to British emigrants, as well as luxurious appointments for cabin passengers (Brinnin, 208–10, 259–60). Stoddard, who had arrived in England on the City of Chester, claimed in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle that it was “a whole year coming to perfection, but has come very near to it at last” (Stoddard 1873). It may have been his recommendation that led Clemens to renounce his loyalty to Captain John Mouland and the Cunard Company.

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3 The Reverend John C. Nobles and his wife, not otherwise identified (“Passengers Sailed,” New York Times, 9 Nov 73, 8).

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4 Olivia was now two months pregnant.

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5 Clemens added this brief marginal note upon arriving in Queenstown on 17 November, meaning that he had written from New York on the evening of 7 November, then entrusted a letter to the pilot of the boat that escorted the City of Chester out of New York harbor on the morning of 8 November, and, finally, sent a telegram from Queenstown. None of these communications is known to survive.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).

Previous publication: L5, 473–475; LLMT, 363, brief paraphrase.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

Liy Livy • Liyvy

skylights • sky-|lights

s • [partly formed]

service • [sic]

sta steam • staeam

left • [possibly ‘“left’]

queenstown • queenstow[n] [badly inked]

boston • [bn] [badly inked]