ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: MR. GHIM’S DREAM (1878)

MR. GHIM’S DREAM (1878) – This anonymous work is set in the autumn of 1877. Mr. Ghim is a poor American who dreams of ending the “current” unemployment crisis through a massive construction project that will employ thousands. Ghim tries to enlist some of the most well-known tycoons of his day – William Vanderbilt, Robert Roosevelt, Jay Gould and others – in his scheme.

Ghim envisions the construction of first one, then many more gigantic vessels which we would today call cruise ships, except his designs make them more like floating islands. Our narrator feels that not only would the construction of these massive ships employ countless numbers of laborers but would serve as an entire industry for the investors since these vessels might attract millions of passengers who want to travel across the Atlantic Ocean (or elsewhere) in just seven days.

The ships would be steam-powered and have dimensions of at least 300 yards by 600 yards. Ghim foresees them having hotels, casinos, restaurants, stores and more. So yes, basically everything that modern day cruise ships boast. To me it’s interesting to see how much of this story’s ideal items are already reality.

The money men go along with our narrator’s plans and the construction of the first such “floating city” – to be called the Toto – employs the masses and costs one hundred million dollars to build.

Some online reviews mistakenly say that the Toto refers only to the futuristic toilets that Ghim’s massive vessels will sport, but that is not true. Each toilet, of which the ships would contain thousands, weighs 400 pounds and has plumbing and sanitation technology designed to standardized dimensions to allow for easily replacing any of them as needed.

The toilets are stated to be far superior to the era’s wooden toilets and pit toilets and provide the users with a more hygienic experience. The toilet seats are automated as is the flushing process. Customer convenience applies to all the other utilities on board, too.

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The anonymous author foresees such monumental projects healing nationwide anxiety about unemployment and technology. Some critics dismiss Mr. Ghim’s Dream as “socialist” but I disagree. Just because Ghim is very alarmed about the consequences of large-scale unemployment does not make this one of the socialist utopias of so much 1800s science fiction.

Readers will note that it is capitalists who fund the Toto project, NOT the government. And realistically or not the floating island industry is depicted providing employment for the masses and profits for the investors, so everybody’s happy.

Yes, here in 2026 we know the cruise ship industry did not wind up saving the world (and sometimes their toilets don’t work as well as Ghim’s), but the naive optimism of Mr. Ghim’s Dream brought me a few smiles.

At any rate, the passengers on the maiden voyage of the Toto include President Hayes, Senator Roscoe Conkling and opera singer Jenny Lind. A bad storm at sea threatens to make this into a disaster tale, but the enormous vessel pulls through with flying colors.

If you’re in the mood for a grounded work of science fiction rather than space travel or invading aliens, you could do worse than read Mr. Ghim’s Dream.       

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