The Mudcat Build A Story Kit continues:

"Tramp steamer" was almost too elegant a designation for the dilapidated ship ploughing its way toward Indonesia. The handful of passengers who had had the poor fortune of booking passage on this unlikely ocean-going shoebox were now repenting the lack of wisdom, or the oppressive poverty that had led them to such a choice. The year was 1956 and the tiny knot of passengers had taken refuge in their individual cabins -- if such an elegant word could be pinned on the tiny compartments in which the unfortunate passengers huddled.

The steamer had earned its name, ....