1925 - From Baltimore to Washington Through History on Virginia In the 1920s, many people vacationed by taking a steamboat from Baltimore to Washington, DC. This trip took three days. It was advertised as "A little Cruise through Historic Waters" in a pamphlet written at the time. The boat stopped at many historic ports. The cost was $12 and included a stateroom, like a hotel room on the water, meals, and a train ticket to get back to Baltimore when your vacation cruise was over. If you took this kind of trip, you might have boarded the steamboat Virginia at Light Street in Baltimore at 4:30 PM in the afternoon. You would have spent your first evening steaming down the Patapsco River, eating fried chicken, fish, and devilled crab. You might have been lucky enough to sit at the captain's table. If you were polite, he might have shown you the bridge after dinner. Then you would have spent the night in your berth in your stateroom. The next day, the boat would make many stops at docks in rural Maryland. Each stop was described in the pamphlet that advertised the trip. The descriptions included a history lesson, so if you read every one, after the trip you would know a lot about Maryland's history. Photo courtesy of Maryland Historical Society Steamboats like Virginia had room for about 120 stateroom passengers. They also carried cargo to the ports along the way. They needed a large crew. There was a captain, a first mate, a work leader and about 5 deckhands, an engineer and about 2 engineer's helpers, and about 3 coal shovelers. Their job was to handle the boat and keep it steaming safely. There was also a cook who had about 2 helpers, whose job was to feed the passengers and the crew, and a steward and his 5 helpers, whose job it was to take care of guests in their staterooms.

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