Life on the Astor

Life on the Astor. . Market demand drives the cost of Lake passage. In 1844, cabin passengers aboard the Astor pay $10 to travel from Sault Ste. Marie to Copper Harbor (about $210 today). Conditions are cramped, dirty and made worse by rough seas., ”Too much dirt to suit our appetites” , Aboard the Astor, Charles Titus found “the eating was done in the little cabin where eight persons, by tight squeezing, could get around the table… [But] after being tossed about on the lake for nearly a week, [we were] crowded and jammed, sometimes too sick to eat, and when well enough, not able to relish the food placed before us, as we found too many hairs and too much dirt to suit our appetites.”, In 1844, the American Fur Company employs W. Stafford as cook aboard the Astor at fifty cents a day (about $10.50 today)., ”Heaving Up Jonah” , Of his 1843 passage aboard the Astor, Charles Titus recalls: “The swells caused a very unpleasant motion to the vessel, which rendered many of the passengers sick.”, Another traveler, George M. Cannon, records his experience on May 15, 1846: “Our boat seemed to labor with the heavy swells, and her timbers writhed and cracked as she rode over and between them, and considerable water came into the hold… A majority of the crew were sea-sick, and as they expressed it, ‘heaving up Jonah.’”, ”Such was our sleeping arrangement” , When the first night came… they commenced stowing us away for sleep… [T]he officers and one passenger found places in the forecastle with the crew, and the rest occupied the cabin which had two compartments, one for the ladies and the other for gentlemen., For me there was a buffalo [robe] spread on the cabin floor, and I congratulated myself upon being so fortunate. , Charles H. Titus, Astor passenger, 1843, Creature Comforts , No pains will be spared to make the passenger as comfortable as we can… Improve her cabin arrangements to the greatest possible extent… for though most people are willing to put up with ordinary food, they are generally more particular about their sleeping comforts. , Ramsey Crooks, April 1, 1844