Bermuda bound, 1888

Photo Credit: A Southern Kind of Love

Retired seniors Cooke and Melville in 1888 both chose the popular destination of Bermuda for their winter getaways. Independently and coincidentally, so far as I know.

Cooke was 78 years old, Melville 68.

General Cooke departed for Bermuda on Thursday, January 12, 1888:

The veteran General Philip St George Cooke, U. S. A., visited New York City this week, locating at the Windsor Hotel. He sailed for Bermuda on Thursday in the Orinoco.  --Army and Navy Journal, [Saturday] January 14, 1888

Eight weeks later, Herman Melville took the same ship and route. The Quebec Steamship Company's Bermuda Line sailed from New York on Thursdays. They advertised a 60 hour trip for the Orinoco, so I suppose Melville must have departed on Thursday, March 8, 1888. He arrived on March 11th, as Hershel Parker relates:

Melville escaped the Great Blizzard of 1888 by taking a sea-voyage to Bermuda . . . . Melville sailed on the Quebec Steamship Company's steamer Orinoco, Captain Garvin, from Pier 17, North River, at 2 p.m., perhaps wearing a distinctive shawlstrap that his granddaughter Frances remembered from his later outings. The Orinoco arrived in Bermuda on 11 March, in fine weather, as the Great Blizzard of 1888 was commencing in New York, but passengers were kept on board two days.  --Herman Melville: A Biography V2.893