It took immigrants how many days to cross the Atlantic?

Answer 1

The time to make the crossing depends, more than anything else, on whether you are talking about sailing ships (17th and 18th century) or steamships (19th and 20th century). The Mayflower, a small cargo ship carrying the Pilgrims in 1620, made the crossing from Plymouth, England, to Cape Cod in 65 days. In 1710, the ships carrying Palatine German immigrants to New York made the crossing in almost exactly the same number of days.

In the 1800s, sailing ship design greatly improved, culminating with the amazing "clipper" ships. In 1824, the Emerald made a record-breaking crossing from Liverpool to Boston in 17 days! That was certainly not typical, but it represents the apex of sailing technology in the 19th century. More typical would be the average westbound crossing time of 29 days logged by the Yorkshire, over an 18-year career. Less affluent immigrants on merchant sailing ships could expect a voyage of 36 to 42 days.

With the advent of propeller-driven steamships in the 1840s, the tide of European emigration increased. In 1860, almost two-thirds of immigrants still came over by sailing ships but, ten years later, virtually everyone was on steamers. No wonder why--by the 1880s, when my great-grandfather came over from Norway, the steamships typically made the crossing in ten days! While the conditions in steerage were still miserable, you didn't have to endure them for nearly as long.

Incidentally, the last Blue Riband for the fastest westbound crossing by a passenger liner was awarded to the S.S. United States in 1952, with a time of 3 days, 12 hours.

In 2011, you can book a westbound transatlantic crossing on the Queen Mary II from Southampton to New York for about $1,200. The cruise takes seven nights. (They aren't trying to set any records).