THE CRUISE INSIDER

Saturday, June 8, 1867 New Work, New York: a young(ish) American journalist with a magnificent moustache drags himself and his hangover up the rain-slicked gangway of the steamship SS Quaker City in South Street Seaport. The Quaker City is about to embark on a 5-month ‘grand pleasure excursion’ to the Holy Land (and assorted other Mediterranean destinations) and the journalist has persuaded his editor to book him passage so that he may report on this exciting new holiday vent