June 8-17 Monday – On board the S.S. Minneapolis en route to England, Sam wrote to Carlotta Welles (whom he dubbed “Charlie”) on a calling card:

“Charlie, dear, you don’t know what you are missing. There’s more than two thousand porpoises in sight, & eleven whales, & sixty icebergs, & both Dippers, & seven rainbows, & all the battleships of all the navies, & me. / SLC” [MTAq 40].

Sam’s A.D. of July wrote of the voyage and of Carlotta (Charlie):  

We had a lazy, comfortable, homelike, nine-day passage, over smooth seas, with not enough motion in a thousand miles to make a baby sick. The ships of that line are very large and very steady, and most satisfactorily slow and deliberate. They have spacious decks, and every passenger has a deal more room than he needs; they are freight ships, and have accommodation for only a handful of passengers. This one was full, with only a hundred and fifty-four. Fifty- one of them were college girls, with their protectors, going out on vacation to study Europe. This was pleasant to me, who am rather abnormally partial to young girls. I took care of most of these, and did it very well, as everybody conceded. The pick of the flock was a very pretty and very sweet child of seventeen who looked only fourteen, and who seemed only fourteen, and remained only fourteen to me to the end of the voyage. I selected her before we were out of sight of land, and borrowed her from her three elderly aunts and placed her at my side at the captain’s table, and from that time until the end of the voyage she had no occasion to miss her mother—if I do say it myself that shouldn’t. Her name was Carlotta but I changed it to Charley, which seemed to me to improve it. She was a gifted and cultivated little creature [MTFWE 11- 12].

Also on board was Prof. Archibald Henderson of the University of North Carolina. Henderson was on his way to London to gather information on a biography of George Bernard Shaw whom Sam would meet on the dock at Tilbury, England. See June 18 entries. Paine also notes Rev. Dr. Francis Landey Patton, President of the Princeton Theological Seminary, Peter Richards, and some school-girls were on board [MTB 1380]. Note: see June 17 for more on Patton and Richards. Henderson would produce three volumes on Shaw, in 1911, 1932, and 1956.

Frederick T. Leigh sent a “Marconigram” telegram to Sam on the S.S. Minneapolis sometime during his voyage (June 8 to 18): “Overlooked asking about your favorite fairy story will you telegraph its name” [MTP].

The London Daily Mail also sent a “Marconigram” telegram to Sam on the S.S. Minneapolis sometime during his voyage (June 8 to 18): “Should like on business terms 500 words exclusive interview preferably written yourself on aspects American rush  Europe and British attraction for yourself  our representative meets you Tilbury / Daily Mail”  [MTP].