China steamship

The China steamship is the missed Liverpool-bound vessel whose departure from New York brings Phileas Fogg’s attempt to complete his journey on schedule to the brink of failure. It is not the ship that carries him onward; its importance lies in the forty-five minutes by which he arrives too late, and in the timetable that makes that small interval appear decisive.

Route and Timetable

The China steamship is bound from New York to Liverpool and is described as one of the fastest steamers on the Atlantic. Phileas Fogg reaches the station on the Hudson at a quarter past eleven on the evening of December 11, arriving before the Cunard line pier. The ship has already left: it sailed three-quarters of an hour earlier. The narrative gives the delay an exact measure, making the missed connection neither a vague setback nor a prolonged misfortune, but a gap of forty-five minutes.

The schedule matters because the wager allows almost no room for another crossing. On the morning of December 12, there are nine days, thirteen hours, and forty-five minutes until the agreed deadline: a quarter before nine in the evening on December 21. Had Fogg sailed on the China steamship, he would have reached Liverpool and then London within the allotted period. Its departure therefore marks the loss of the route that the timetable identifies as sufficient—not merely a convenient passage, but the known crossing that could still deliver him to the finish in time.

Fogg consults Bradshaw, which lists the daily movements of the transatlantic steamers. The information makes the alternatives legible and, at first, bleak. The Pereire does not leave until December 14; the Hamburg boats go to Havre rather than directly to Liverpool or London, and the additional journey from Havre to Southampton would defeat the attempt. The Inman steamer is due to depart the next day, but cannot cross the Atlantic quickly enough to save the wager. The China steamship stands out by contrast: the other departures do not provide an equivalent way to meet the deadline.

The Missed Departure

The ship’s departure immediately changes the mood of Fogg’s party. Passepartout is crushed by the loss and blames himself, believing that he has repeatedly obstructed his master instead of helping him. As he recalls the incidents of the journey, he also reckons the money spent in what he considers waste and on his own account. He fears that the wager’s large stake, added to the costs of the journey, will ruin Fogg. The missed ship thus carries more than the practical cost of a lost passage: for Passepartout, it gathers earlier mistakes and expenses into a single moment of self-accusation.

Fogg does not reproach Passepartout. Leaving the pier, he says that they will consider what is best the next day and tells him to come along. The party crosses the Hudson by ferry and goes to the St. Nicholas Hotel on Broadway. Fogg sleeps profoundly, while Aouda and the others are too agitated to rest. This contrast places his composure beside their anxiety without changing the immediate facts: the ship is gone, the deadline remains, and no alternative has yet been found.

On the morning of December 12, Fogg leaves the hotel alone. He instructs Passepartout to wait for him and to have Aouda ready at a moment’s notice, then searches among vessels moored or anchored along the Hudson for one preparing to depart. Several ships are making ready to put to sea with the morning tide, but most are sailing vessels and cannot serve his purpose. The search follows directly from the timetable problem the China steamship has created: its absence forces Fogg to look beyond the scheduled options he has just examined.

Importance to the Wager

The China steamship also shapes what the other wager participants believe has happened. Later, Andrew Stuart cites the vessel’s arrival and a passenger list on which Fogg’s name does not appear. Since the China steamship was, in Stuart’s view, the only vessel from New York that could have got Fogg to London in time, he concludes that Fogg has lost and is likely to be at least twenty days behind. Gauthier Ralph agrees that the group need only present Fogg’s cheque at Barings the next day.

That conclusion gives the missed ship a second significance. For Fogg and his companions, it is a practical obstacle that demands another plan; for the wager participants, it becomes apparent proof that the attempt has failed. The ship’s timetable seems to close the case before Fogg’s journey is actually over. Its narrative force lies in this difference between a real missed departure and the much larger conclusion drawn from it: the China steamship establishes how little time remains, while its absence from Fogg’s passage encourages others to mistake one lost route for the loss of the wager itself.