Setting sail!

Nellie woke up on Nov. 14 “before the milkman arrived,” and with sudden trepidations. She had never been on a ship before, never crossed an ocean.  “Shall I ever get back?” she wondered. Her fears were exacerbated by severe headaches every day for the past year. She had consulted physicians, who told her that the cause was obvious: she had been doing newspaper work every day for three years and needed a rest. Instead she was embarking on a trip around the world!

She boarded the Augustus Victoria carrying one bag, “a hand-satchel” that contained two traveling caps, a pair of slippers, toilet articles, pens, pencils, copy paper, needles and thread, a dressing gown, a blazer, a small flask and drinking cup, several changes of underwear, and a jar of cold cream to keep her face from chapping. Over one arm she carried a raincoat. The prospects of doing laundry while traveling were extremely dim. On the steamers and on trains no laundries existed. The most she could hope for was an “Oriental laundry” at a port along the way. Plus, their charges, when compared with laundry prices in New York, would be “wonderfully low.”

The Augustus Victoria set sail at 9:40:30 am, and within an hour of leaving New York harbor Nellie became seasick. Experienced travelers ghoulishly watched her heave over the side. One sneering man remarked, “And she thinks she’s going around the world!” But she was determined not to give in. At dinner she bravely sat next to Captain Anders, the ship’s captain, with a group of experience travelers. She made it through the soup course, but when fish was served she had to excuse herself and raced to the ship’s deck. Nevertheless she returned, to the Captain’s approval and that of the others at the table. Within minutes she had to excuse herself once again and hurried out. Again she returned, and within minutes raced out a third time to relieve herself once more. She returned a third time, and the fellow passengers at the table all saluted her with “bravos!” At that point dinner was just finishing, and Nellie commented that “it was very good!”

She went to bed shortly afterwards, at 7 pm, and slept for almost 22 hours. From that point on, her seasickness disappeared, and she ate sumptuously.

It would be another week until the ship was in sight of land: Southampton, England.