Sea Travel Times

[woofas]

My grandfather, in the Army, was posted to Hong Kong in April 1898 returning in July 1903. His father, also in the Army went to St Helena in April 1847 returning in December 1852.
I have been trying for some time to get some idea of how long these journeys would have take at the time.
Can anyone help please?

[Chinajan]

Some limited information here:

https://www-labs.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/History/Ships_19thC/

Do you know the name of the ships concerned?

[Togo]

There is rather a useful map in this link that is colour coded and gives travel times in days to areas around the World from London. This map is for 1914 or so. There is an earlier map that covers the 1870s.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3339902/What-travel-looked-like-100-years-ago-Map-shows-DAYS-took-travel-abroad-1900s.html

[Togo]

The Francis Galton isochronic map is in this link and shows travel times in days in the 1880s. Fascinating.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/isochrone-maps-color-time

[woofas]

Thanks for your replies.
I have been trying for some time to identify the ships they travelled on. They could have been on passenger ships rather than troop carriers as they did not appear to travel with a full regiment deployment, Gfather in RASC Ggfather in RA
The map only show 1914 and suggests around 40 days to Hong Kong.
The 1847/52 trip was probably by sail whereas the 1898/1903 couls be either or both
I cannot find any reference to the1870s map!

[Togo]

Looking at the maps it appears that your grandfather's journey to Hong Kong would have taken a somewhere in excess of 40 days. This would have been a journey under sail and precise journey times were not possible because the ships really were at the mercy of the weather.
Your great grandfather's journeys to and from St Helena would have taken about 20 days but at least 10.

[Togo]

The map in the 16.28 link says early 1880s although a previous reference I saw said that Galston started drawing the charts in the 1870s. I doubt that the times would have altered very much for decades and certainly not for hundreds of years prior to steam being widely introduced. Remember the servicemen, taken for granted then as well, would not be travelling on the best or indeed fastest or safest vessels. My father's uncle( his father's youngest brother) was lost on a troop ship travelling to India. The family always maintain that he was thrown overboard by the officers as punishment for fighting and already having stowed away on a ship from India to get back to England.