Passenger Ship Travel in 1874
History Notes for Chapters 12 - Devil's Chaperone and Chapter 13 - No Good Justice
The historical star of chapters 12 and 13 is the French passenger ship that the Last Chance Tour takes from La Havre, France to Porto, Portugal: The SS LAFAYETTE.
I’m a little obsessive about the history I incorporate into my books, but I’m not that obsessive. Absent a time machine, there are things you will not be able to find out about people, places, and, in this case, a ship, but I try to make it so that the experiences my characters have are possible no matter how improbable.
Thus, I spent a lot of time looking for a passenger ship that might have sailed from La Havre to the United States in 1874. That ship turned out to be the Lafayette. Christened in 1863 as a paddle-wheel steamship, the boat was converted to screw drive engines in 1868. After many years on a different route, in May of 1874, she resumed Havre - Brest - New York sailings and made three round voyages, the last starting on 12th Feb.1876.
This was perfect as the tour would have been traveling during the summer break 1874. Possibly even the end of May. The only fictional change I made to the history of this ship was adding a slight detour to Porto before continuing to New York.
If you have read the chapters, the scenes discuss or occur in different parts of the ship. Louisa even climbed one of the vessel’s masts, but the most exciting area to write about was the fancy interior of the ship. Here is where my research came up short. I could not find any photos of the interior of the 1870s version of the boat.
I did find some great pictures taken in 1915 of the ship’s replacement by the same name. I ended up using these as the inspiration for the scenes.
Undoubtedly, the first Lafayette, forty years younger than the images you see, would not have been up to the same level of luxury. I took this license with the story to enhance the descriptive details of the scenes.
One thing I could not change on a whim was the toilets. I once again dove into the past to ensure that the original ship would have installed flush toilets by 1974. You are thinking: Why? Why does this guy do so much bathroom research? What’s his problem?
Maybe it’s because one of my greatest anxieties is running out of toilet paper (but doesn’t everyone have that phobia?). Still, in reality, it’s because I’m writing about a period when that technology was brand spanking new, and it was adopted slowly, causing the terminology to be in flux.
My favorite room, which is mentioned in passing in Chapter 12, is the ship’s puppet theater, seen below.
Shipboard entertainment has come a long way since then, but at the time, this was an ingenious distraction for the children enduring the long transatlantic journey.
As captain of the SS Louisa Sophia Adventures, I hope you have enjoyed this little history tour of chapters 12 and 13. If you want to keep learning more, make sure to subscribe.