Overseas mail in the early 20th century

PastMidnight · Nov 2, 2006

Does anyone have a good idea how long it took a letter to travel between the US and the UK in the early part of the 19th century (before the first World War)? I've seen examples of letters taking 3 weeks during the war, but would imagine that they could travel more quickly before.

alleycat · Nov 2, 2006

I assume that's a typo and you meant early 20th century.

I'm not sure about the mail but the great old ocean liners used to take between five and ten days to make the transatlantic voyage as I recall; they carried mail. If you don't need an exact time I would guess ten days to two weeks between the time a letter was mailed and it was delivered. Maybe a bit more.

PastMidnight · Nov 2, 2006

Oops! You're right, I meant early 20th century. I had been doing early 19th century research for a previous book. Thanks for the info about length of ocean liner voyages. That helps!

JenNipps · Nov 5, 2006

Glad you got some help, PastMidnight.

I edited the discussion title to reflect what Alleycat said.

Overseas mail in the early 20th century

PastMidnight

Oponionated

alleycat

Still around

PastMidnight

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JenNipps

Have you JHS today?