All at sea – travelling the Mediterranean in the early 19th Century

I’ve been researching times for sea travel. I began because I had a soldier to get home wounded from a battle in Alexandria. The times didn’t work, so I had to have him injured elsewhere.

It’s a tricky question, because it depended so much on the type of ship, the time of year (and therefore the prevailing wind), which direction they were travelling (trips towards the west were slower than trips towards the east) and the weather encountered along the way.

But I’ve managed to come up with a table showing what I think are reasonable timings for a medium-sized sailing ship – a brigantine or a frigate – in the early 19th.

A fast ship given perfect conditions would do better, and bad conditions could mean the trip took a lot longer. And pirates could mean you didn’t finish it at all.

I’d be delighted if any of you naval buffs want to correct my figures. Just comment below.

Embarkation port
Destination port
Nautical miles
Time spent on the voyage


Rome (Ostia)
Gibraltar
935
7-10 days


Gibraltar
Rome
935
7-10 days


Tunis
Gibraltar
820
6-9 days


Gibraltar
Tunis
820
6-8 days


Istanbul
Rhodes
445
5-6 days


Rhodes
Istanbul
445
5-6 days


Rhodes
Marsala (in Sicily)
760
30-50 days


Marsala
Rhodes
760
20-30 days


Gibraltar
Marsala
857
7-10 days


Marsala
Gibraltar
857
7-10 days


Marsala
Alexandria
1175
20-30 days


Alexandria
Marsala
1175
45-65 days

Add 1374 miles from London to Gibraltar, and you begin to have a sense of the distances.