Note 60 — Chapter V · OPENING OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SERVICE

It has been said the Sirius carried no passengers. According to Notes and Queries, the New York Herald, of April 28, 1838, in reporting the arrival of the Sirius, says that forty-two passengers were on board, of whom eleven were females, for whose accommodation a stewardess was carried. A contributor to Notes and Queries quotes the authority of the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen for the statement that the stewards’ department consisted of three stewards, one assistant, two cooks, and a boy, and he asks whether this staff would have been required in an ordinary boat of 412 tons if there were no passengers.