In 1620, the three-masted ship Mayflower left Southampton, England, and set course across the Atlantic for America. 66 days later, the ship’s 102 passengers disembarked in Massachusetts after a long and difficult journey in high winds and waves.
However, this long journey of the Mayflower was not unusual, because for many centuries the journey across the Atlantic Ocean had been time-consuming and risky. But in the 19th century, this changed a lot when steamships appeared on the scene.
In 1838, the paddle steamer SS Sirius took just over 18 days to make the trip, but by the end of the century steamships with larger engines and more powerful propellers had reduced the journey time to almost six days.
The next phase came when transatlantic airspace was conquered, first with airships and later with airplanes. In 1936, the German airship Hindenburg flew to the US in just two days and 19 hours, while a Douglas DC-4 aircraft did it in 14 hours in 1945.
In 1976, the silent plane Concorde cut the Mayflower’s 66-day journey to just 3 hours and 30 minutes.
