I’ve been reading a lot of old travelogues these days, and I’ve been struck with this odd desire to take a tramp steamer to somewhere far-off and exotic, and do typical bohemian tramp-steamer things, like sit out on the deck and chit-chat with my fellow tramps. However, I imagine that practically all scheduled international transport happens via air these days. Still, I was wondering: apart from things like vacation cruises and hitching rides on cargo ships, do they still have scheduled passenger ships going across the ocean, à la Lusitania, only without the unfortunate torpedoing?
I hear this one is really awesome. I know someone’s parents who did it. I think they have first class cabins but it doesn’t look like they have a steerage class. It is a real working cargo ship and is the main link to 32 ports of call on the western coast of Norway.
There’s this one which is an inter-island cargo ship that hits all the obscure islands in French Polynesia. I hear it’s very primitive. Most of the islands don’t have docks so you have to take the smaller landing craft that deliver goods to the villagers on the islands.
I’ve personally taken a cruise on a cargo/passenger ship up the Amazon. It cost something like $28 (well, I could be mistaken, but it was very, very cheap) for a 5 day trip. You have to supply you own hammock to hang on the huge open air passenger deck. It’s actually pretty boring and flat and loses its romance after a day or two. It’s also hotter than fuck. I did however see both pink and grey Amazon river dolphins.
Local ferries yes, but otherwise no.
The Cunard ships still seem to do transatlantic crossings. The Queen Elizabeth 2 is making its final crossings this year, while the Queen Mary 2 is starting to make them and the Queen Victoria appears to be making longer ocean voyages.
My understanding of the “tramp” in tramp steamer means that its is a ship with no regular route. A “tramp” steamer travels from port to port, taking such cargo jobs as present themselves.
A “steamer,” I wold think implies a steamboat, which I imagine you would be hard pressed to find these days.
But, since your question as I understand it is “Can I ride along on a cargo ship as a passenger with no definite destination?” Possibly, but I doubt it. But I only came here to say the bit about the “tramp” in "“tramp steamer”.
A moment’s Googling finds several companies that arrange worldwide travel on cargo ships.
You will note that the OP said: “apart from things like vacation cruises and hitching rides on cargo ships…”
My son in law was 1st officer on a cargo ship that mainly sailed from England or Holland, called in at ports in France, Spain, Portugal, North Africa, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Honk Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, then back to NZ, OZ, South America, Panama and sometimes some US ports then back to the UK.
This took 3~4 months.
They regularly had paying passengers with them. Most were demented with boredom after a couple of weeks and called it a day at some major port and flew the rest of the way or went home.
I don’t really understand what you are looking for. You seem to want to travel on a scheduled passenger ship but that is not what travelling on a “tramp steamer” was about. You actually exclude “hitching rides on cargo ships” but this is exactly what being a passenger on a tramp steamer was about except that, as kdeus says, a tramp steamer had no fixed route.
Just was talking with a cousin that was merchant marine back in the 50s, and he said the tramp steamer thing he was familiar with was someone asking a member of the crew where they were headed next, and if they wanted to go there then they would talk to the captain or first officer to see if there was room. They would occasionally get someone who wanted to work for passage instead of pay. If it was a privately owned vessel that could be negotiated but for company owned vessels it was usually not done.
You got a lot of ex military ex pats who would live in say Manilla for a few weeks/months/years and decide they wanted to move to anther port and would go around seeing what destinations were available. I am sure that more than a few were looking for the earliest boat to somewhere else as well 
Not a steamboat in the Mark Twain-era paddlewheeler sense, but any steam powered ship, so designated by the SS before the name. Here is a modern cruise ship powered by steam.
Ah. I misused the terminology here. Please pardon my late-night vocabulary mangling.
Oh no, they definitely don’t have steerage class anymore. It used to be a fairly common means of transportation for the people who live along the coast, calling in at a lot more ports and offering deck passage and cheap cabins as well as more luxurious accomodations. Now the ships are cruse-ship quality and most of the passengers are really taking a one-way cruise, to see the sights and enjoy the journey, not to get somewhere. It’s no longer a cheap way of getting around, and the rustic romance factor is way gone.
I think at least a few of the ships are still carrying some cargo, however…
That’s a shame; I was looking for a way to get across the ocean that was a) cheaper than taking a plane, and b) had the added factor of being a cool story to tell when I get back (“That time I hitched a ride on an oil tanker across the Atlantic”). Alas, unless I’m able to sweet-talk some Norwegian cargo captain, I guess I’m taking a plane both ways.
So the literal answer to the OP is probably “maybe, but more likely to be found in the Third World.” In the civilized world, working freighters probably hew more closely to established routes (hence fewer cargos of opportunity), and probably are leery (for liability and other reasons) of taking on civilians. There are of course the “adventure tourism” type freighters equipped with passenger facilities too.
Here’s one that looks pretty cool:
Why? You want be like Jack Dawson.
I’m sorry. “Taking a tramp steamer” just sounds … nasty.
I knew someone that did it about ten years ago. He got a passenger ticket on a working cargo ship from somewhere on the U.S. east coast (NYC maybe but I don’t remember), over to the Mediterranean (stopped in Italy, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, etc.) and back to New Orleans.
The ship was on a pretty definite schedule, so some stops were only for a few hours, while others were for a couple days. He was the only passenger, they apparently don’t have many.
He had a grand time - the crew took him ashore in Livorno to see their families, the food was tremendous (I think he gained 25 pounds), he skipped a couple stops to spend a few days in Israel (which was his primary destination), it was a very peaceful trip.
I’d recommend it for an unusual vacation.
It wasn’t particularly cheap, however.
It’s probably too late to sign up with these guys, and it’s not cheaper than flying.
Here is the best single source of information about freighter travel today. It has an abundance of links to further information. My son actually looked into it as an alternative to flying to the Philippines (he is at high risk of DVT), but it’s definitely more expensive than flying, in addition to being far slower.