Distance between Two Points – Part 4: Other Routes Explored (1840’s-1870’s)
By the mid-19th century, the time to cross the Atlantic between Europe and North America was down from weeks to days. In 1848 trans-Atlantic crossings average time from Liverpool to New York (including a stop at Halifax) was down to 12 days 22 hours. In 1851, they averaged 11 days 12 hours eastbound, and 12 days 9 hours westbound. In that era, the fastest sailing vessels, the China Clippers, when fully rigged and riding a trade wind, had a peak average speed of over 16 knots (30 km/h).
The decade of the 1840’s was a tumultuous period. The Panic of 1837, triggered by bank failures in the US, lead to a depression that lasted until 1845. In Europe, harvest failures in the mid-1840’s lead to famines such as the Great Irish Famine (1845-1849). In the 1840’s the German Confederation was a largely autocratic political structure consisting of 39 independent states. Rapid industrialization caused a socio-economic crisis as worker’s living standards dropped and alcohol consumption increased. In 1848 a wave of revolutions swept throughout Europe. In was in this decade that my German ancestors came over from the Grand Duchy of Baden and my Irish ancestors came over from North Ireland.
On 6 September, 1492, Columbus departed from the Canary Islands off the coast of North Africa and reached the new world somewhere near the Bahamas on October 12th – traveling a distance of approximately 3,000 nautical miles of ocean in a little over 5 weeks time at an average speed of about 3 ½ knots (6.75 km/h).
German American Heritage Month begins September 15 and the 200th Oktoberfest begins on September 18. This got me to thinking about the recent uproar in the news over the opening of a mosque near the WTC site in New York. The connection is that this is not the first time where certain ethnic groups living in America have become scapegoats and targets of scorn.
Probably the most famous incident involving the long delay of time it took for news to travel in the days before the telegraph allowed for almost instantaneous transmission of messages was the Battle of New Orleans. This lengthy battle fought between American and British forces in the swamps outside of New Orleans, Louisiana began on December 23, 1814 and ended on January 15, 1815; with the main battle taking place on January 8. However, the War of 1812 officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on the 24th of December and yet news that the war had ended in late December didn’t reach New Orleans until late February.