Ocean Etiquette

War workers and the men in the expeditionary forces were transported under such very different circumstances from those of pleasure travel that as far as the small points of manners go it was an entirely different proposition.

Good breathing is the result of much good sense.— Chesterfield

IT IS so many months since Americans have taken trips for pleasure that we must brush up a little on the question of the etiquette of ocean travel. War workers and the men in the expeditionary forces were transported under such very different circumstances from those of pleasure travel that as far as the small points of manners go it was an entirely different proposition.

Under ordinary circumstances the woman ocean voyager has a good many letters to write during the first few hours of her voyage because it is considered only courteous for her to send off little notes of thanks to those who have sent flowers, books or other presents, by the mail that is taken off with the ship’s pilot. However, these letters need not be long... as surely no one would expect you to miss all the pleasure of being on deck during the first of your voyage in order that you might dwell at great length on your appreciation of their generosity. The question is sometimes asked whether it is in good form to use the stationery such as is provided by the ocean lines, or whether it is not better to use one’s own stationery. Good form seems to sanction the use of the ship’s stationery, and it is surely more interesting to those who received letters to have them on this paper.

Suppose you know no one on ship-board. Must you therefore keep to yourself because there is no way for you to have introductions to the other passengers? Certainly not. It is quite good form for you to begin with a courteous good morning addressed to those whom you meet at table or whom you pass every day on deck. At least by the second or third day out you would naturally start a conversation with the person seated next to you on deck and to resent any such friendliness on the par of others would indeed be unkind. If for any reason you wish to be left entirely to yourself you should make a special request that your steamer chair be placed in an isolated part of the deck.

It will then become apparent that you do not wish to mingle with the others and you will have no trouble in keeping by yourself. But by far the most agreeable thing is to accept the friendly advances of persons whom you meet and if they appear congenial there is no reason why you should not let the friendship progress quite as if you had had a formal introduction. — By Mary Marshall Duffee, 1922

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