Wednesday 7th, very fine morning, strong sunshine, & sea much reduced, a very great change from yesterday. It is really enjoyable. Our position at noon was: Lat. N. 46.10, Long. W. 129.40, run 289 knots, distance to Victoria 310 knots, mod. breeze, mod. head sea. It is now 4 p.m., tea hour, but I’ve only taken tea once during the afternoon on the passage. They don’t make it nice. The water is heated by steam & the [6:65] virtue seems to be all boiled out of the water, huge copper boiler, & is always boiling, & the tea does not taste palatable. Cocoa is my chief drink at breakfast. We are all expectation now in anticipation of arriving at Victoria tomorrow where we ought to be about noon, if this weather continues & no fog encountered. The ship is a long way lighter now than when we arrived at Honolulu. A quantity of coal was put ashore there in bags which the ship takes in again on her return for fuel. Coal is cheaper, much, in N. Zealand or Australia, I should say, as I think the coal used comes down from Newcastle, NSW to Sydney, & they take it on board at Sydney, & they consume 65 tons per day in the furnaces, so we daily get lighter, & as we promenade the deck, it is quite up hill to walk forward. We were down to Plimsoll[1] when we left Wellington & the fore hold was filled with coal, now it is nearly empty. The after hold is full of sugar.[2] I’ve been sorting my baggage & putting into small compas[s] just to last the going through the country. The remainder will go on under bond direct to New York to await my arrival there. This saves it being examined by the customs. The duties are very heavy in the US & they – so they who have had experience – are most rigourous [sic] in taxing even tourists’ surplus wearing apparel. I shall post on from Vancouver all that I have ready & there won’t be much to add to this contribution.
[6:66]
[1] The Plimsoll line is the mark on the hull of a ship that shows where the waterline is when the ship is loaded to full capacity according to the condition of the water at the point of loading. It was named after Samuel Plimsoll, who instigated the passage of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1875, which established the marking of a Load line on every cargo ship. This was to prevent the practice of launching deliberately overloaded “coffin ships”, which were intended to sink so that the owner could collect the insurance money.
[2] Inserted on facing page: “Sugar”.