Port Said
P&O SS Victoria Jan’y 27/98, Thursday night 10:10 p.m. local time.
Just passing through the Bitter Lake[1] which we entered about 9 p.m., since which time, we first class passengers have all been at a concert in the 2nd saloon by invitation, & much enjoyed it, finishing up with the National Anthem.
We arrived about 1 p.m. yesterday at Port Said, the weather very cold, & after a very disturbed night, ship rolled cruelly. At breakfast, the rolling created considerable excitement. This I referred to in my last, but lunch by far surpassed the morning meal. We were just outside the harbour, & with a cross sea & the ship fairly light, she is a great height, & rolled with terrifying effect. Every article on the tables in the saloon was upset. You could not imagine the confusion created: bottles all adrift, [1:64] oil, vinegar, sauces flowing everywhere, plates emptied, tumblers upset, & many lost their wine & spirits. Knives & forks & spoons on the floor, & the chairs, each turns on a pivot, these we could not steady, & round they flew, many being thrown out onto the floor, but the great smash was in the cabin below where the surplus diners were. These tables, oval tops, have no fiddles & all three were cleared of every item they had on, a very lively scene I assure you. The breakage must have been great.
We got safely in. However, the pilot could not board us, so we were guided in by a steam tender. We were all thankful when we felt riding steadily. On entering the harbour, boats in great numbers were soon alongside, & most went ashore. We were to sail again at 5 p.m. Many left to join the train at 3 for Cairo rather than continue in the steamer as far as Ismalia, this to save time, [1:65] & they proved wise as during the afternoon a tank steamer, on entering the canal, had grounded, & we were to be indefinitely delayed, & this extended till 10 exactly this morning. Personally, I was not concerned because I wanted to see the canal, or as much of it as possible, in daylight.
During our visit ashore, it was terribly cold, unusually so for here. The thermometer was at 50, & every where the natives were burning charcoal in crucibles & seemed starved, poorly clad, & poor weak creatures, dirty & miserable looking, & the town a very wretched place. We visited the native town also, & this baffles description, such hovels as must only be seen to be understood. Children in gangs surrounding us for baksheesh,[2] & persistent to offensiveness. Guides await the boats at landing platform, & some of them are great curiosities. Ours [1:66] styled himself John Ferguson from Aberdeen, some of our ladies he would call Mrs. Langtry[3] others Mrs. Cornwallis West[4] & so on. While in the streets, touts from shops running after us all declaring their shops as the very best. I went into a few in our way of doing & was surprised at the stocks, C&Bs[5] H&Ps[6] in abundance, & much else that surprised me.
We visited the prison, well guarded, saw various grades of prisoners & a section wherein were 3 Englishmen. 1 had been a stowaway & was confined for 7 days, another for refusing duty, the 3rd we didn’t enquire his offence. They were eager for newspapers but unfortunately we had none & had we gone ashore again purposed to take what we had for their use, but we hadn’t the opportunity. We went into the Mosque, where a priest was reading, to some Mohammeds, the Koran, quite aloud & unheeded by visitors, then asking his [1:67] pupils questions. Others, & there were many, repeating their prayers, kneeling then touching the ground with their foreheads then rising & wailing out their laments, & down on their knees again. All had their shoes off & laid aside. One we saw in the court yard, washing his feet before he entered the Mosque. The door keeper had a big supply of bass pockets[7] into which we shipped our boots, & then we were permitted to move about & at perfect liberty. Beggars were at the doors outside & all asking for money. We saw a funeral too & wailers following, setting up great howling & gesticulating with their arms. These last sights were in the native town. I was disappointed with Port Said but its repute is bad, very bad.
At sunset, & just as we were making for the landing, some natives were praying in the streets, shoes off & set aside, & performed their devotions publicly. A bust of Lesseps[8] [1:68] stands on a pedestal in a small garden, ill kept, & on the grass here was a Mahomedan at his devotions, his shoes left on the pathway. There are tramways runs [sic] through some of the streets, donkeys innumerable, each with a celebrated name, & the carriages, a poor lot, drawn by ponies. We preferred to walk & view at leisure, & the 3 hours we were ashore sufficed for all we were desirous of seeing. The filthy condition of the place generally hurried us on board, & with no desire to return, even had it been daylight & time for disposal. Early this morning, I arose, anxious to see the entrance to the canal, & as there was still a doubt as to when the obstruction would be removed, numerous passengers decided to land & proceed by the 9 train for Cairo, & the scene at the ship’s side, competitors for patronage, was very amusing indeed. Some preferred to sail as far as Ismalia [1:69] & land there, & train it to Cairo. These left us at 7 to night, a very few minutes after arriving. It was then dinner time.
The steamer was soon underweigh again, the Captain being very anxious about time, seeing so much had been lost at Port Said, & now at moment of writing we are in the narrows again, going very slow, & are due at Suez at 3 a.m. In many respects I was interested during the passage today, lots of incidents (our engines has [sic] just stopped) en route, stoppages & slowing while passing steamers, & once 5 of us were all close together. We got away nicely but it was sometime before the others got clear. Some sections are wider than others & allows passing, but 2 had entered before us this morning & we with mails should have gone in first, so these 2 had to be detained at the first station to let us pass. Then there are many [1:70] boat houses. Workmen & signallers live in these. Dredgers, hopper barges &c. &c., then the railway to Suez runs parallel with the Canal & 3 trains we saw, also several Arabs, & a caravan crossing the sands, whilst many were on the edge of the lakes shooting water fowl. Others we saw in boats fishing on the canal, & many were labouring. The stations are very pretty & they all have a few trees & plants growing around, also their goats & poultry, but whereever an Arab village, so called, was, these consisted of tents & huts & wretched looking hovels. In fact, on many portions of the way, life was in evidence, tho’ the greater portion is sandy dessert [sic].
Our numbers have dwindled down & the ship will be almost empty after Aden,[9] as many like myself leave her there for Bombay.
Now it’s time this was posted. The box [1:71] will soon be cleared for posting at Suez.[10]
The next letter will be posted at Aden.
Good night:-
All well:
Posted on board the Victoria, Jan’y 27/98. Suez Canal, near Suez.
[1:72]
[1] Egyptian lake at southern end of Suez Canal.
[2] Arabic word: means bribes, money
[3] Famous actress of the time
[4] Mistress of the future King Edward VII
[5] Crosse & Blackwell. Founded in 1706, makers of sauces, spreads and chutneys.
[6] Huntley & Palmers started life in 1822 as a small bakery in London Street, Reading. In 1846 the firm opened a large factory on Kings Road in Reading. The use of tins enabled Huntley & Palmers biscuits to be exported across the world and in particular to the British colonies. By 1874 they boasted, ‘seldom a ship sails from England that does not bear within his ribs a Reading biscuit’. By 1900 this business was the largest biscuit manufacturer in the world, employing over 5,000 people.
[7] Bass bags
[8] Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, finished 1869
[9] Port city on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Was a British Protectorate area in 1898
[10] “Aden” deleted and “Suez” added.