Charles boarded the Steamer Haverford in Philadelphia. The Haverford left Philadelphia on September 31, 1905 for a ten-day crossing. It would stop first in Queenstown (also known as Cobh) on the Coast of Ireland, and then dock in Liverpool. The Haverford plied between Philadelphia and Liverpool under charter by the American Line.
Charles wrote a postcard and two letters home during his trip across. A few months after he got to Oxford, he wrote an account of the journey that the Hobart News-Republican published. These letters and his article are transcribed below.
It is on shipboard where he begins to get to know his classmates, since at least 35 Rhodesmen made the same voyage. And in the letters, he refers to the ones he knows less by the names of their states, a habit he will continue through his Oxford time. He and Mohler of Kansas, both college tennis players, may have made acquaintance before.
Charles also makes comments on the height of the men–he has some sense, at 5′-9′, of being a short man.
Image from: http://www.greatships.net/haverford.html
Other pictures, information on the Haverford: http://www.atlantictransportline.us/content/68Haverford.htm
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POSTCARD October 2, 1905, S.S. Haverford, near Cape May to Rose Mahaffie, Komalty, Okla.
Everything is smooth so far and just had a good 12 o’clock lunch. Got Rose’s letter O.K. Staterooms are small but [?] and everything seems alright. Put on a good lunch. Ship is loaded with cattle below. Are a lot of tall men in the bunch. Most of this year’s bunch are short.
Charlie
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LETTER
Saturday, October 7th 1905
Dear ones at home:
Don’t know just when this boat will get to Queenstown where the mail is put off so am just going to get ready now. Have had fairly good weather so far and I haven’t been a bit sick yet. Don’t know just when I’ll knock under tho. Quite a number of the boys have been sick and most of the women on board. Don’t seem to suffer so terribly but hate themselves pretty thoroughly I imagine. Carol [Mr. Carol Foster, ’05 Rhodesman from Idaho] was one of the first. The weather has grown rough very gradually is what has proved the salvation of a lot of us. It’s so foggy today that the whistle blows about half the time. Haven’t had any excitement especially. See a ship or two most every day and have seen two whales. Yesterday a bunch of big fish 4 to 6 feet long got around the bow and stayed for quite a time. There are 175 saloon and 300 steerage passengers on board. The ship is loaded with fat cattle.
We won’t get into Liverpool until Wed. A.M. at best and that will make us St. John’s men at least a day late. There are three of us in the bunch. Mohler Kans. Alburn Ohio & I. I like Mohler fine. Bum with him most of the time. There are 11 ‘04 men on board, and about that many of ours who went on other lines etc. Have a fair little library but you can’t read very much at least I can’t–hard on the eyes.
Kill the time playing whist, shuffle board, quoits and checkers. This seems to be a very fine set of fellows but not quite so athletic as I expected. Several grinds got in on sneaks. Last year’s man from Ark. Carothers—and I have bucked in football.
This ship just goes a little over 300 per day. Everything is very nice on board, at least in our part of the boat. They don’t allow us in the steerage, but four of us Wash. Penn. N.J. and I went thro anyhow and things are not quite as nice in there. The cow men [cattle handlers on board] lead a dog’s life. Get up at 3:15 and work most of the time from then on. Grub is very poor too. They are a pretty bad lot for the most part too.
Our accommodations are excellent. Staterooms are small but bunks have pneumatic mattresses to deaden vibration and service is O.K. Serve four meals a day—breakfast 8 lunch 2:30 dinner 6 and supper 9. I haven’t gone to supper tho. Have a great lot to eat but they spoil a good bit of it by not salting anything sufficiently. Am tired of fish. Gone back to beef.
The promenade deck—where we stroll–is 30 feet up. Our staterooms are just below, then the steerage, then two cattle decks, after that the hold, containing supplies, coal, machinery, etc.
There are only a very few winsome young ladies on board. They certainly have a good time.
Both the other St. John’s men are going in for Law Prelim. Mohler is going to enter for Modern Hist. tho. All the old men smoke and a very large majority of the new ones.
Overcoats have been very comfortable since the second day out. All the old men seem as nice as can be about advice, etc.
There is a good deal of talk already of a base ball game between the two years. Hardly anyone is going in for football and most of the people for rowing. Guess the latter will about catch me. Five of last year’s men made their college crews. I haven’t much hope being too short to do the best but at present expect to try anyhow.
–30 min. Later—
Just got back from looking at a little Danish fishing smack we passed about a quarter off. Seemed to pitch about dreadfully and made me pretty glad to be on a big steamer. This ship dips about 20 feet at the ends and rolls from six to ten on the sides in the present fairly quiet water so you can imagine what a smaller boat would do.
English money is a fright. Pence about the size of a half dollar and no bills less than five pounds. After I got east of K.C. didn’t see a silver dollar–all bills.
We have one Yale, 4 Princeton, and 2 Harvard men on board. Went to school out of their states mostly. Only four men in this year’s crew much larger than I. Conn. Wash. W.V. And Minn. 8 out of 11 last years are larger tho. Mostly six footers. This yr’s gang look like tennis players. About all are too.
There’s an Episcopal priest from Phila. opposite me here at the writing table who held services last Sunday morning and evening and will again tomorrow if he is able. Has been sick a lot this week. A good deal of the service is rather tiresome but he made a talk that was really great. Is on his way to Eng. to go into a sort of Monastery. Takes a vow of celibacy etc.
There are a good many Scotch people on board. The ship officers are mostly Danes and the crew English. Makes quite a mixture.
The priest is a mighty fine fellow. There is a Meth. divine also who is entirely outclassed.
Am extremely glad I got a cap. Is the only thing on shipboard. Also should have gotten a steamer rug and a bathrobe. Can get along pretty will without the former but the latter is practically indispensable. Have to go the length of the corridor to the bathroom. Minn. and I wear Mo.s [?] Am kicking myself already for not bringing my books. All of them too, but especially history and classics. Shall find out about freight rates and if it will not cost most of the worth of them perhaps have you send me about a 100 pounds. Don’t know yet tho.
The smoke stack on this ship is about 16 ft. thro. and the anchor chain links about a foot across. Anchor are not small. Don’t use any sails ordinarily but have a full equipment of masts spars etc. in case of emergency, all of steel.
I’ve worn my jersey most of the time on ship. Usually put on a shirt before dinner tho. They don’t misrepresent things any about riding better in middle of the ship. Motion is much worse at the ends.
There are quite a number of children aboard. They don’t seem to suffer any worse off as bad as the grown-ups.
I gave $1 for a deck chair to lie in on deck but haven’t had to use it yet. In case of sickness it is much better on deck in the fresh air. Is a little close in the rooms. Most everybody is doing a little writing these days. Seems a long time since you had any news. Shall be mighty glad to get the papers. I had the Post for that yarn. Also McClures. Am going to leave off now and perhaps add some before we leave Queenstown. [Queenstown, also known as Cobh, is a port in County Cork, Ireland, a stop for mails and passengers on the Philadelphia-Liverpool journey]
C.M.
Monday A.M. Everything still O.K. And we are supposed to sight the lighthouse at the end [?] of Ireland tonight. Have a stiff head wind and are making poor time. [rest unintelligble] C.D.M.
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LETTER, October 9, 1905, S.S. Haverford
Dear Home Folks,
Am going to start in tonight Monday 9th to write some more cause I have more time than anything else and shall probably be pretty busy after we actually reach England. The sea is rather choppy but the ship rides smoothly enough. In fact I have become so accustomed to just about so much motion that it bothers but very little. They have us new men bluffed tho. By relating how very rough it usually is in the Irish Sea.
This P.M. we all got out on the forward deck and everybody on the ship who could dig up any sort of a camera took a shot at us. The cap. was just a little sore because the Rhodesmen had not included him so he invited us all up on the bridge – a forbidden place – and we had some more pictures. Then he got to feeling so good that he took us around to several places where we are not supposed to go and then told us a lot of yarns. Is a very egotistical old fellow, when people brag on him he just swells up. Is a Dane.
Last night we had the swell dinner of the trip. Most everything you could ask for was on the bill but the unusual features were oyster soup and turkey with cranberries. They have ice cream every other night. Also alternate grapes, Cal. plums, apples and bananas. Is certainly a fine place to live.
The question of life is commencing to be rather acute among the new men. It seems that at the end of the voyage most everyone who has done the least thing that had any connection with your comfort on the trip expects from one shilling up. It is still very cold and the old men say that last Fall in Oxf. the sun arranged an appearance about once a week. Say the English called it an excellent Autumn too. Am gladder every day that I’m in one of the so called cheaper col[lege]’s.
The old men on board are every one in debt from £6-up on their first year’s expenses. Of course there is an enormous expense on entering that is not necessary again. That affords some comfort. Don’t know of a new man who hasn’t at least a B. A. and a half dozen or more have done a year or so of post-grad work. A few have the M.A. Only one simple B. A. received the Senior standing. He from Minn. A lot of the fellows with equal degrees are a little sore about it.
Mohler and I are to take exactly the same work up to Xmas at least. Have seen reading gains a little on on the trip. One of the ‘04s had a text along. A great many of the fellows are going in for Modern Hist. but Law Preliminary exam. looks good to me but guess I’d better stick to straight Jurisprudence. Have to write this extremely fine stuff to make much go for the value of .05 cts. I got p20 changed into English coin before leaving Phila. and as that coin is in use on the boat I’m becoming somewhat accustomed to it.
They say that no slouch hats [cowboy hat or similar wide-brimmed] of any kind are permitted in Oxf. Nothing but caps and derbies. There will be quite a collection of the soft hats to be thrown away in that case, because a good many of the fellows have them.
Note: Isabel C. Mahaffie told a story about her husband’s voyage. She remembered his telling how on shipboard, realizing the move he was making, he took off his Stetson, and flung it into the sea. The comments he makes about hats here make this sound plausible, but he never mentions tossing away his hat, nor a mass hat toss from the Rhodesmen aboard, which his hat commentary above might suggest.
We are to have a concert after dinner tonight, one of the big guns being a young lady from S. Car. Miss Flanagan who is on her way to Ger. to study violin. A good number of the fellows sing and they have gotten up a double quartet and are to put on a number of solos and specialty. Also Miss F.’s chaperon and some of the other passengers do stunts of some description.
I’m in a good deal of a hurry to land. Have a fine time on board and all that but it does get a little tedious. Suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if I weren’t anxious to get a squint at the place itself.
St. John’s is a long way from the river so if I go in for rowing it will be quite a walk. They have no street cars, don’t want to disturb the serenity of the atmosphere.
The prom. deck is some 30 ft. from the sea but yesterday evening the spray came on so that walking was practically out of the question. For exercise one has to get out and walk back and forth on a deck some fifty yards long.
Tues. night.
This morning we were off the coast of Ireland and about 9 arrived at Queenstown harbor called Cork. Couldn’t see much of the town. Just stopped out at the mouth of the bay and put off a few passengers and mail on a tug. The coast is a low bluff and farmed right down to the edge. There are a lot of boats on these waters. In fact, the largest afloat is just now passing us about ¼ mile South. Is a sight all ablaze with light.
We get into Liverpool pretty early in the morning but have to fool around with quarantine, customs, etc. for some time. The sea here is not nearly so rough as it was pictures; is smooth enough.
Everybody is packing up tonight and the deck and reading room are absolutely deserted. Got down into the kitchens this A.M. and it surely is a sight. Do things on rather a large scale. Don’t cook any bread except rolls but use regular ships bread. That is the worst thing about the cuisine. They started with 300 gals. of milk for instance and other things in proportion except more because milk is served to cabin passengers only. Don’t make ice on this boat as some do but keep up the cold by chemicals in the refrig. rooms.
The concert last night was ordinary except for the captain’s part. He made a speech and is a funny little man anyway, very extremely affected, speaks English brokenly and was a picnic indeed. Started off about the Rhodesmen so. We ought to feel very much all honored. Maybe between us there is a president, etc etc at much length. Then read an original fable about the Lord Almighty, the toad, and the nightingale. Was highly entertaining but not very true to life.
I have of course lots of time now but from the looks of things am likely to have a great plenty to do after I get placed. Am anxious to know what I’ll have to do. Have given up absolutely all hope of Senior standing tho and the old fellows tell me that from their experience there is but little chance of my getting B. C. L. [bachelor of civil law]. Say they are about the greatest sticklers for absolute conformity anywhere. In that case I’ll take Law Prelim. in Dec probably. Don’t have to until June but if I must, prefer to get it off my hands as soon as possible. If I do that shall be compelled to run up a light bill the first term. Hate that too as I’d like to put in a good deal of the first term getting acquainted and sort of catching on to things.
This boat is sure going in clean. They wash and scrub all the decks every night and all the woodwork in the saloon deck is gone over every day, the carpets removed and scrubbed out beneath and they keep about two men painting most of the time so that everything in this part of the ship looks most too clean. In fact they scrub away as though they must when one can see absolutely no need of it. The sea is the cleanest place on earth anyway. You can wear a shirt as long as you please unless you seat and a shine lasts indefinitely.
Had duckling for dinner among other things, was very nice. Have found out how they can sell a ten days’ ride with $2 board for 42.50. They work a large force of waiters, stewards, etc. In fact one ——- to every three fares in the passenger dept. but they in all the better positions work for their board. Have a uniform furnished and depend on tips for their salary. I haven’t done much tipping yet. Don’t know how much I can’t get out of but fear that their salary accts. won’t grow much from taking care of me.
We expect a special train to take us to Oxf. but may be disappointed. Don’t know when I’ll have to mail this to get it off on the next mail but shall add a little to let you know how I am.
With lots of love,
Charlie D. Mahaffie
[Brief postscript not included here from after his arrival]
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A few months after his voyage, Charles wrote an account that became an article in the Hobart paper, the News-Republican. It offered a few details not in the letters home.
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Hobart News-Republican, March 23, 1906
MAHAFFIE AT OXFORD
Former Hobart Boy Writes Entertaining Letter From England About His Trip
Oxford, England, March 1, 1906
By the time the Haverford was ready to sail from Philadelphia on the morning of September 31st, 1905, thirty-five of what the men of ‘04 are pleased to call the “new crop” of Rhodes scholars had managed to get their baggage safely on board, and began to look around to see what our home of the next ten days looked like. Some of the “new men” had started a week or two earlier with the intention of seeing a little of England and settling down here in Oxford before the colleges should assemble, but to make up for their absence eleven of the men of ‘04 who had been home spending the summer went with us.
Of the new men very few had any or at the best more than one or two acquaintances among the number but this state of affairs did not last long. Before the boat had gotten away from the dock most of us had introduced ourselves to everybody in sight, who looked as if he might be a Rhodesman. Not many mistakes were made either, though there was on young Australian who had just finished his work at the university of Penn, who was occasionally hailed and asked his name and what state he represented. He seemed to enjoy the situation immensely and was soon quite at home in a crowd of Rhodesmen.
We had fine weather the first few days, growing a little rougher perhaps, each day but so gradually that most of the men were able to stay on deck.
They had a rule on board that was intended to keep us cooped up on one deck, and everywhere else we tried to go we were confronted by the notice, “Passengers not allowed here.” In spite of the vigilance of the officers however, the boat was not many days out before the Rhodesmen had been all over her, except one place—the furnace room—and that none of us ever managed to see. Other passengers told us that the strictness in regard to the furnace room was on account of the conditions there; that the life of the stokers was considered too revolting for the passengers to be allowed to see. Anyway they kept a very efficient sentry at the door.
The principal diversions on board were whist, shuffleboard and quoits, with whist, I believe in the lead.
The eleven men who had been over before never lacked something to do. Whenever one of them did not seem especially busy somebody would begin asking him questions, and if he seemed willing to talk, and he usually did, a crowd would soon gather. One of them, Tandy of Kentucky, was so accommodating to us and such a good talker, that men of his own year soon began to “lolly” about Prof. Tandy’s course of lectures on “Oxford as it will appear.” The “Prof,” however, was not disturbed in the least and went right on explaining to interested crowds in the smoking room, the things we really needed to know.
[Portions of this letter/article not about the voyage not transcribed here]
Fellows on the boat who were going to the same colleges soon found out one another. Mine is St. John’s, and I found Mohler of Kansas, and Alburn of Ohio, had made the same selection. Our college opened Oct. 11, a day or two in advance of most of the others, and we just managed to get here in time. We got into Liverpool before daylight in the morning but it was after ten o’clock when they landed us, and after that of course we had to have our baggage inspected. Though they gave us a special train and made very few stops on the way, it was about 3 o’clock when we got to Oxford.
Yours truly,
Charley Mahaffie
