dollars a month, in addition to their board. The normal tip for a dining-room steward is from five to ten dollars a passenger for a voyage. A steward will collect from thirty to sixty dollars a voyage in tips. He will average about one round trip a month, working three weeks and staying ashore one.
The smoking-room stewards make more in tips than the dining-room men. The chief steward of a ship is not tipped but the second steward finds nothing in tradition to keep him from taking everything that is offered. It is not unusual for a second steward to receive a tip of as much as $100 from a wealthy passenger. The chief steward often makes more in roundabout ways. He may receive advice on investments, from some financier whom he has served on many voyages, that will be worth more to him than all the tips received on a voyage by all the men who are under him.
Americans, the stewards say, have a great liking for sweets. All the ships carry pastry cooks and confectioners, competent and well-paid men. One of the most important jobs of the confectioner is to make fancy birthday cakes for passengers who have birthdays on the Atlantic.
A good chef is paid at least $5,000 a year. The chef on the "Majestic" has under him seventy cooks, including a first, second and third meat cook, a first, second and third fish cook, etc. They cater to the tastes of passengers, who eat much more than they do on shore. The stimulation of salt air and other factors of ship life whet the appetite.
The stewards insist that few passengers miss meals because of seasickness, on the largest ships, and say that they expect and prepare for every passenger on the ship's list at every meal. On exceptionally rough voyages in the winter, however, there are many vacant chairs.
A housekeeper would be staggered by the job of caring for the kitchen and dining-room equipment on the "Majestic."
There are seventy-five tons of dishes and cooking utensils and more than three tons of silverware and cutlery.
What Is It? Just a View, Looking Downward, of the Circular Stairway of a New Liner, Built to Descend Many Decks into the Depths of the Ship, and Yet Save Room
