en.wikipedia.org Open in urlscan Pro
2a02:ec80:600:ed1a::1  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

/w/index.php

<form action="/w/index.php" id="searchform" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button">
  <div id="simpleSearch" class="cdx-search-input__input-wrapper" data-search-loc="header-moved">
    <div class="cdx-text-input cdx-text-input--has-start-icon">
      <input class="cdx-text-input__input" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia" aria-label="Search Wikipedia" autocapitalize="sentences" title="Search Wikipedia [alt-shift-f]" accesskey="f" id="searchInput" autocomplete="off">
      <span class="cdx-text-input__icon cdx-text-input__start-icon"></span>
    </div>
    <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search">
  </div>
  <button class="cdx-button cdx-search-input__end-button">Search</button>
</form>

Text Content

Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar hide
Navigation
 * Main page
 * Contents
 * Current events
 * Random article
 * About Wikipedia
 * Contact us
 * Donate

Contribute
 * Help
 * Learn to edit
 * Community portal
 * Recent changes
 * Upload file

Languages
Language links are at the top of the page across from the title.
Search

Search
 * Create account
 * Log in

Personal tools
 * Create account
 * Log in

Pages for logged out editors learn more
 * Contributions
 * Talk


CONTENTS

move to sidebar hide
 * (Top)
 * 1By sea
   Toggle By sea subsection
   * 1.1Passenger liners
   * 1.2Smallest powerboat to cross the Atlantic
     * 1.2.1Zodiac
     * 1.2.2Rafts
     * 1.2.3Rowing and paddling
       * 1.2.3.1Transatlantic rowing races
       * 1.2.3.2Sail
 * 2Transatlantic flights
 * 3Transatlantic cables
 * 4Transatlantic tunnel
 * 5Duration of transatlantic crossings
 * 6See also
 * 7Citations
 * 8Further reading
 * 9External links

Toggle the table of contents
Toggle the table of contents



TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING

7 languages
 * العربية
 * Deutsch
 * Eesti
 * Español
 * Esperanto
 * Français
 * Italiano

Edit links
 * Article
 * Talk

English

 * Read
 * Edit
 * View history

Tools
Tools
move to sidebar hide
Actions
 * Read
 * Edit
 * View history

General
 * What links here
 * Related changes
 * Upload file
 * Special pages
 * Permanent link
 * Page information
 * Cite this page
 * Wikidata item
 * Edit interlanguage links

Print/export
 * Download as PDF
 * Printable version


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Passages of passengers and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean
For other uses of the term Transatlantic, see Transatlantic.

Transatlantic crossings are passages of passengers and cargo across the Atlantic
Ocean between Europe or Africa and the Americas. The majority of passenger
traffic is across the North Atlantic between Western Europe and North America.
Centuries after the dwindling of sporadic Viking trade with Markland, a regular
and lasting transatlantic trade route was established in 1566 with the Spanish
West Indies fleets, following the voyages of Christopher Columbus.


BY SEA[EDIT]

Main article: List of crossings of the Atlantic Ocean

Prior to the 19th century, transatlantic crossings were undertaken in sailing
ships, and the journeys were time-consuming and often perilous. The first trade
route across the Atlantic was inaugurated by Spain a few decades after the
European Discovery of the Americas, with the establishment of the West Indies
fleets in 1566, a convoy system that regularly linked its territories in the
Americas with Spain for over two centuries. Portugal created a similar maritime
route between its ports in Brazil and the Portuguese mainland. Other colonial
powers followed, such as Britain, France and the Netherlands, as they colonized
the New World.

Guinness Book of World Records has awarded world records to vessels of various
classes such as luxury liners, sail boats, and rowing boats. Because of the
shape of the continents and the assistance (or resistance) of ocean currents,
the Eastbound crossing is quicker than the Westbound crossing.


PASSENGER LINERS[EDIT]

SS Bremen depicted on a German postage stamp

Transatlantic passenger crossings became faster, safer, and more reliable with
the advent of steamships in the 19th century. The wooden-hulled, paddle-wheel
SS Great Western built in 1838 is recognized as the first purpose-built
transatlantic steamship, on a scheduled run back and forth from Bristol to New
York City. The design by British civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a
breakthrough in its size, unprecedented passenger capacity, and for Brunel
leveraging the fuel efficiency of a larger ship. It became the prototype for a
generation of similar ships.[1]

The British & North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company started its
year-round Liverpool-Halifax-Boston service in 1840, using four new
Britannia-class steamships and a mail contract from the British government. The
company later evolved into the Cunard Line, with Cunard's dominance drawing the
attention of the U.S. government, which had its own mail contract to offer to an
American firm willing to compete. In 1850 the contract was awarded to the New
York and Liverpool United States Steamship Company, which became the Collins
Line, and which answered Cunard with its own four ships, which were newer,
larger, faster, and more luxurious.

Competition developed among the industrial powers of the time—the United
Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States—to competitively build
grand ocean liners as symbols of national technical skill and expressions of
power, not just transport businesses. The competition was for speed. An award
called the Blue Riband has been tracked since 1838, for the fastest average
speed of a steamship in regular service across the Atlantic. This record became
so critical to international prestige that the RMS Mauretania was commissioned
by the British government specifically to take the Blue Riband back from the
Germans and their SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which it did in 1907. The
government also required it be convertible into a troop carrier if needed.[2] In
1935 shipping magnate Harold Hales formalized the prize by commissioning and
donating the four-foot, solid silver Hales Trophy.

Examples of other famous transatlantic liners are RMS Lusitania, RMS Olympic,
RMS Titanic, SS Île de France, SS Rex, SS Normandie, RMS Queen Mary, SS America,
RMS Queen Elizabeth, SS France, Queen Elizabeth 2, RMS Queen Mary 2, and the
SS United States. The United States is the current holder of the Hales Trophy.
In July 1952 that ship made the crossing in 3 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes. Cunard
Line's RMS Queen Mary 2 is the only ship currently making regular transatlantic
crossings throughout the year, usually between Southampton and New York. For
this reason it has been designed as a proper ocean liner, not as a cruise ship.

During World War II the transatlantic crossing was very important for the United
Kingdom as much of Europe had been taken over by Germany and its allies
preventing trade and supplies; the struggle is known as the Battle of the
Atlantic.


SMALLEST POWERBOAT TO CROSS THE ATLANTIC[EDIT]

In 2009, two brothers, Ralph and Robert Brown, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a
21 ft (6.4 m) flats boat – a special boat designed to operate in extremely
shallow water. This flats boat was designed and built by Ralph Brown. The voyage
was called the "I Am Second Wounded Hero Voyage" in honor of the men who were
killed in Operation Eagle Claw; Ralph Brown had been in the USMC at the time of
the Operation and was told he was going to participate in the mission. Though he
ultimately did not go, other servicemen who did perished in the failed military
operation.[3][4][5]

ZODIAC[EDIT]

In 1952, Alain Bombard crossed the Atlantic from East to West, journeying 113
days in a Zodiac, L'Hérétique.[6]

RAFTS[EDIT]

In 1956, Henri Beaudout crossed the Atlantic from West to East, from Halifax to
Falmouth, on a raft of wood and rope, L'Égaré II, in 88 days.[7]

In 1970, Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlantic in Ra II, a papyrus raft built to
an Ancient Egyptian design. This voyage followed an unsuccessful attempt the
previous year in his first raft, Ra I.[8]

In 1988, the junk raft, Son of Town Hall, crossed the North Atlantic Ocean.[9]

In 2011, Anthony Smith and the Antiki crossed the Atlantic.[10]

ROWING AND PADDLING[EDIT]

Main article: Ocean rowing

On 13 June 2003, French rower Maud Fontenoy started an eastward crossing of the
Atlantic from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. She reached A Coruña in Spain on 10
October, becoming the first woman to accomplish this feat.[11]

In 2005, the Vivaldi Atlantic 4 broke the previous rowing record of 55 days and
setting a new record of 39 days.[12]

On 26 October 2010, Polish sexagenarian Aleksander Doba was the first recorded
individual to complete a non-stop transatlantic crossing by kayak. He departed
Dakar, Senegal and arrived in Brazil 99 days later.[13]

TRANSATLANTIC ROWING RACES[EDIT]

Main article: Atlantic Rowing Race

In 1997, the first East–West Atlantic Rowing Race took place, running from the
Canary Islands to the Caribbean. It now runs roughly once every two
years.[citation needed]

In 2006, the first West–East North Atlantic Rowing Race took place, running from
New York City to Falmouth, Cornwall in the UK.[citation needed]

SAIL[EDIT]

Main article: Transatlantic sailing record
Banque Populaire V, current record holder

In 1775, the 62-ton schooner Quero, sailed by John Derby from Salem,
Massachusetts to the Isle of Wight in 28 days (April 28 to May 25).[14][15][16]

In 1866, the 26-foot (7.9 m) lifeboat Red, White and Blue sailed from New York
City to Margate, England, in 38 days.[17][better source needed] In 1870 and
1871, The 20-ft yawl City of Ragusa sailed from Queenstown, Ireland, to New York
and back, crewed by two men (and a dog) each way.[18]


TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHTS[EDIT]

Main article: Transatlantic flight

Transatlantic flight surpassed ocean liners as the predominant mode of crossing
the Atlantic in the mid 20th century. In 1919, the American NC-4 became the
first airplane to cross the Atlantic (but in multiple stages). Later that year,
a British Vickers Vimy piloted by Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop
transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland. Also in 1919, the British
were the first to cross the Atlantic in an airship when the R34 captained by
Major George Herbert Scott of the Royal Air Force with his crew and passengers
flew from East Fortune, Scotland to Mineola, Long Island, covering a distance of
about 3,000 statute miles (4,800 km) in about four and a half days; he then made
a return trip to England, thus also completing the first double crossing of the
Atlantic (east–west–east). The first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic was
made by the Portuguese naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral in 1922.
Coutinho and Cabral flew from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in
stages, using three different Fairey III biplanes, and they covered a distance
of 8,383 kilometres (5,209 mi) between 30 March and 17 June. The first
night-time crossing of the Atlantic was accomplished during 16–17 April 1927 by
the Portuguese aviators Sarmento de Beires, Jorge de Castilho and Manuel
Gouveia, flying from the Bijagós Archipelago, Portuguese Guinea, to Fernando de
Noronha, Brazil in the Argos, a Dornier Wal flying boat. In May 1927, Charles
Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight in an airplane
(between New York City and Paris). The second solo piloting, and the first to
carry a passenger, was Clarence Duncan Chamberlin on 6 June 1927. Edward R.
Armstrong proposed a string of anchored "seadromes" to refuel planes in a
crossing.

The first serious attempt to take a share of the transatlantic passenger market
away from the ocean liners was undertaken by Germany. In the 1930s, Germany
crossed the Atlantic with Zeppelins that could carry about 60 passengers in a
similar luxurious style to the ocean liners. However, the Hindenburg disaster in
1937 put an end to transatlantic Zeppelin flights.

On 1 June 1944, two K-class blimps from Blimp Squadron ZP-14 of the United
States Navy (USN) completed the first transatlantic crossing by non-rigid
airships. The two K-ships (K-123 and K-130) left South Weymouth, MA on 28 May
1944 and flew approximately 16 hours to Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland.
From Argentia, the blimps flew approximately 22 hours to Lajes Field on Terceira
Island in the Azores. The final leg of the first transatlantic crossing was
about a 20-hour flight from the Azores to Craw Field in Port Lyautey (Kenitra),
French Morocco.[19][20]

Beginning in the 1950s, the predominance of ocean liners began to wane when
larger, jet-powered airplanes began carrying passengers across the ocean in less
and less time. The speed of crossing the ocean therefore became more important
than the style of crossing it. The maturing passenger Jet Age starting with the
Boeing 707 reduced the typical crossing time between London and New York City to
between 6.5 and 8 hours, depending on weather conditions. By the 1970s,
supersonic Concorde airplanes could connect the two cities in less than 4 hours,
and only one ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth 2 remained on the transatlantic route
for those who favored the slower style of travel.

The economics of commercial transatlantic flying have evolved markedly since the
1950s; the introduction of widebody airliners (such as the Boeing 747 and
Douglas DC-10) in the early 1970s made affordable transatlantic travel to the
masses a reality. Since the 1990s, the high reliability of modern jet engines
has meant that twin engine jet aircraft such as the Boeing 767, Boeing 777 and
Airbus A330 have largely taken over on transatlantic routes from quad-engine
jets, whilst the supersonic Concorde was ultimately doomed by its high running
costs, leading to its retirement in 2003. Since the late 1990s, single aisle,
narrow body jet airliners (starting with the Boeing 757, and more recently the
latest versions of both the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320) have been used for
transatlantic service, meaning that city pairs between major North American hubs
and secondary European cities can now be connected directly without the need for
larger widebody jets, which were uneconomic on routes with lower passenger
demand.


TRANSATLANTIC CABLES[EDIT]

Further information: Transatlantic communications cable

Transatlantic cables are cables that have been laid along the ocean floor to
connect North America and Europe. Before the advent of radio, the only means of
communication across the Atlantic Ocean was to physically connect the continents
with a transatlantic telegraph cable, the first of which was installed from
Valentia, Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland in 1858. It worked for a
month.

The first pair of eastbound and westbound transatlantic telephone cables, TAT-1,
were laid in 1955 and 1956 by the cable ship HMTS Monarch. The first
transatlantic fiber optic cable, TAT-8, was installed in 1988.

The exchange rate between the United States dollar and British pound is still
colloquially known as "cable" by financial marketeers, from the early use of the
transatlantic cable for this purpose.


TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL[EDIT]

Main article: Transatlantic tunnel

A transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical structure proposed several times since
the late 19th century. It would be a tunnel spanning the Atlantic Ocean between
New York City and the United Kingdom or France.


DURATION OF TRANSATLANTIC CROSSINGS[EDIT]

The introduction of various technologies facilitated progressively faster
transatlantic crossings. The duration to travel westbound from Europe to North
America when a new transport innovation was introduced for commercial use is
listed below:

 * 1620: 66 days: fluyt Mayflower (Southampton to Cape Cod)
 * 1838: 18 days 4 hours: paddle steamer SS Sirius (Cork to New York City)
 * 1863: 8 days 3 hours: single screw steamship RMS Scotia (Queenstown to New
   York City)
 * 1889: 5 days 19 hours: double screw steamship SS City of Paris (Queenstown to
   Sandy Hook)
 * 1907: 4 days 20 hours: steam turbine-equipped steamship: RMS Lusitania
   (Queenstown to Sandy Hook)
 * 1929: 4 days 3 hours: bulbous bow-equipped steamship: SS Bremen (Cherbourg to
   Ambrose Light)
 * 1936: 4 days: Yarrow boiler-equipped steamship: RMS Queen Mary (Bishop Rock
   to Ambrose Light)
 * 1936: 2 days 5 hours: airship LZ 129 Hindenburg (Frankfurt to Lakehurst)
 * 1939: 1 day 3 hours: flying boat Pan Am Boeing 314 Clipper Yankee Clipper
   (Southampton to Port Washington via Foynes, Botwood and Shediac)
 * 1945: 14 hours: landplane American Overseas Airlines Douglas DC-4 (London to
   New York City via Gander)
 * 1958: 10 hours 20 minutes: jet aircraft BOAC de Havilland Comet (London to
   New York City via Gander)
 * 1976: 3 hours 30 minutes: supersonic aircraft British Airways Concorde
   (London to Washington, D.C.)


SEE ALSO[EDIT]

 * Transatlantic relations
 * Transatlantic flight
 * Transpacific crossing
 * Transpacific flight


CITATIONS[EDIT]

 1.  ^ Rolt, L.T.C., "Victorian Engineering", 1970, Allen Lane The Penguin
     Press, ISBN 0-7139-0104-7
 2.  ^ "Exhibition "On the Water" - Ocean Crossings". Smithsonian Institution. 9
     February 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
 3.  ^ "Smallest Power Boat to Cross The Atlantic: Florida brothers set world
     record". www.worldrecordacademy.com. Includes video. Retrieved 13 August
     2011.
 4.  ^ "Smallest Powerboat to Cross the Atlantic Ocean".
 5.  ^ "Two brothers cross the Atlantic Ocean in a 21' boat". 21 October 2009.
 6.  ^ Bombard, Alain (1953). The Voyage of the Heretique. Simon and Schuster.
 7.  ^ Wadden, Marie (3 August 2012). "Three Canadians, two kittens, one raft: A
     little-known journey across the Atlantic". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 19
     May 2014.
 8.  ^ Heyerdahl, Thor (1972). The Ra Expeditions. ISBN 0-14-003462-5.
 9.  ^ "Son of Town Hall, First Raft made of Scrap to Cross the North Atlantic
     Ocean". The Floating Neutrinos. 30 May 2006. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
 10. ^ Weil, Martin (26 July 2014). "Anthony Smith, adventurer who crossed the
     Atlantic by raft in his 80s, dies at 88". Washington Post. Retrieved 8
     September 2020.
 11. ^ "Ses-traversees-et-son-tour-du-monde". Fontenroy Foundation. Archived
     from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
 12. ^ "Rowing the Atlantic". BBC. 25 September 2006. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
 13. ^ "64-Year-Old Kayaker Completes Trans-Atlantic Voyage". Wired. 10 February
     2011. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
 14. ^ Borneman, Walter R. (2014). American spring: Lexington, Concord, and the
     road to revolution (First ed.). New York: Little, Brown and Company.
     p. 248. ISBN 978-0316221023.
 15. ^ Rantoul, Robert S. (2018) [Reproduction of an historical work, originally
     published 1832]. The cruise of the "Quero": How we carried the news to the
     king. A neglected chapter in local history. Forgotten Books.
     ISBN 978-0484107105.
 16. ^ Ruppert, Bob (17 April 2015). "A Fast Ship from Salem: Carrying News of
     War". Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
 17. ^ "Nautical archive, ship horn of the Red White & Blue".
     liveauctioneers.com. Live Auctioneers. 13 July 2019. Retrieved 19 September
     2020.
 18. ^ "The City of Ragusa". Cork Constitution. British Newspaper Archive. 30
     June 1871. p. 2 col.6. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
 19. ^ Kline, R. C. and Kubarych, S. J., Blimpron 14 Overseas, 1944, Naval
     Historical Center, Navy Yard, Washington, D. C.
 20. ^ Kaiser, Don (2011). "K-Ships Across the Atlantic" (PDF). Naval Aviation
     News. No. Spring 2011. Washington, DC: Chief of Naval Operations and Naval
     Air Systems Command, Navy Dept. pp. 20–23. ISSN 0028-1417.


FURTHER READING[EDIT]

 * Fowler Jr., William M. Steam Titans: Cunard, Collins, and the Epic Battle for
   Commerce on the North Atlantic (London: Bloomsbury), 2017. 358 pp


EXTERNAL LINKS[EDIT]

Look up transatlantic crossing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
 * "Evolution of trans-Atlantic Ships", May 1931, Popular Mechanics



Authority control: National
 * Germany
 * Israel
 * United States

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transatlantic_crossing&oldid=1163053352"
Categories:
 * International transport
 * Transport in the Atlantic Ocean
 * Transatlantic relations

Hidden categories:
 * CS1: Julian–Gregorian uncertainty
 * Articles with short description
 * Short description matches Wikidata
 * Use dmy dates from September 2020
 * Articles containing French-language text
 * All articles with unsourced statements
 * Articles with unsourced statements from July 2018
 * All articles lacking reliable references
 * Articles lacking reliable references from September 2022
 * Commons link is locally defined
 * Articles with GND identifiers
 * Articles with J9U identifiers
 * Articles with LCCN identifiers

 * This page was last edited on 2 July 2023, at 17:44 (UTC).
 * Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
   4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms
   of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the
   Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

 * Privacy policy
 * About Wikipedia
 * Disclaimers
 * Contact Wikipedia
 * Code of Conduct
 * Mobile view
 * Developers
 * Statistics
 * Cookie statement
 * Edit preview settings

 * 
 * 

 * Toggle limited content width