[swordtart]

With real life passenger ships in the age of steam/sail there is little allocation to personal space. On the SS Great Britain, the cabins are broadly 2m cubes. All the bunks/cots are 2m x 0.75m. The level of luxury seems to be determined by how many occupants per cabin.

A cabin 1 for first class. As the cots were about .75m off the floor, this would give .75 x .75 x 2 m storage under. There is also space on the bulkhead above the bed for some personal possessions to be wall mounted (a small bookshelf, a gun etc.). If you weren't claustrophobic you could put in maybe .5 x .75 x 2 m of storage above the bed. This leaves 1.25 x 2 of floor space to move around and put in some furniture (a bureau or a clothing cabinet). The advantage of such a confined space is that you only need a small space allocated to move around the cabin maybe .75m x 2m in front of the cot will allow you to access every part of the room. That leaves 0.5 x 2 x 2m for storage on the opposite wall. You might even put some more storage (coat pegs and a trunk) in that corridor space at the end of the cabin furthest from the door as you don't really need to access the wall itself. If you had this sort of cabin however you might leave it largely open to allow you an illusion of space (and if you are lucky a view out of a porthole). Your cabin opens onto a spacious salon room with skylights, couches, tables etc. There is probably an equal amount of space to walk about as there is total cabin space on your deck. There are bathrooms and lavatories that are shared between the first class passengers, but obviously not at the same time. You can have as much privacy as you can stand.

Lower class accommodation would have twin bunk beds in place of the cot. This would restrict the space you had for stuff on the wall but it could still be personalized to a degree. The floor space and under bed stowage is rather more limited if shared between two, but if these were a couple or good friends then it might not be too much of a hardship. The walkway space would be the same. Your door opens onto a corridor running the length of the ship with cabins arranged either side of it. Inner cabins would not have a porthole and so you might as well fill up that wall with personal possessions. You are in the working part of the ship and the corridor is actually quite wide. The corridor opens onto the dining room which is your common space when it is not being used for dining. You have second hand light from the light shafts descending from the better cabins in the deck above. You probably have the same area as the better accommodation above but you are sharing it with twice as many people. You also have shared bathrooms and toilets. You only have to negotiate with your room mate for some privacy.

The steerage classes might have 4 or even 6 bunks to the same space, 2 or 3 stacked on either side of a central 0.5m walkway (sqeezeway really). Now everything becomes a bit of squeeze. The only storage is under the lowest bunk which you are sharing with 2-3 others. You also have a little bit of wall space at the head and foot of the bed, you might have something small on the long wall your bunk is attached to, but it will need to be flat or you will keep bumping into it in your sleep. There is hanging storage at the end of the "walkway" furthest from the door. Of course if you are travelling stowage class you probably don't have much anyway and what you do have won't be left lying around for someone else to take. Your cabins are arranged by the dozen into strips running the width of the ship like terraced houses. They open onto a central walkway 1 m wide which itself joins another running the length of the ship at either end. You will have cubes either side of yours and another row backed onto your row. At one end is your common areas, the communal mess (you cook your own food) and the washing facilities both clothes and personal. You have a head that you all share. Everyone in stowage shares these areas. You not only have less space, you are also sharing it with far more people. You have no privacy other than that which you can create by force of personality (and maybe some sheets hung between cabins). You probably have a lot of arguments.

In addition to the dedicated common areas each passenger has a stowage allowance. This is stored below decks as cargo. With the relevant crews permission you can access it and transfer stuff from your personal cabin storage to "off-line" storage. You will be paying to ship this cargo separately so even someone travelling middle class might have bulky trade goods far in excess of their personal cabin storage. As stowage class you probably don't have anything as you had to sell it all to buy the ticket. As upper class you probably have servants in middle class to manage that stuff for you.

You can also use above deck space. The above deck is divided in half fore and aft the stowage classes may not cross the line amidships. This is probably their largest common area (it's less useful when the weather is up and given this is the Atlantic that is probably a lot of the time. Still you'll be puking over the side rather than into your cot, so may it's not too bad). Upper and middle classes hare their half of the upper deck, but it will still be a large area pro-rata and it is in addition to all their other personal spaces. Hopefully the middle classes will remember to keep a respectful distance allowing the upper classes the appropriate space to relax.

This accommodation was for up to six months at a time on long voyages. You got to get off and walk about at ports though so it probably matches the endurance of humans between jumps.

If you follow this model then it becomes clear that maybe 50% of passenger spaces are not necessarily encompassed within the cabins themselves. We tend to think in terms of hotel rooms with en-suites but that isn't necessarily the case (though it might be for High Passage). Even the wealthy need to socialise occasionally and you don't necessarily want to invite people to your private rooms. You will need a salon or two as neutral ground. For middle passage the cabins can be small with maybe a toilet/washbasin (think Firefly). Anything else is probably common (to varying degrees). Plenty of opportunity for mid-voyage intrigue and adventure.

Obviously our steerage class passengers are actually cargo so we just need a power supply and a hole to put them in.