"Keith Hazzard" <hazzardsk@dodo.com.au> posted: > Can someone tell me the route taken by ships from Liverpool & Belfast > to the USA in the 1850s. Assuming Keith means sailing ships, I would think most ships from Liverpool to New York would go round the south of Ireland. However if a steady south wind was present, they could go north about Ireland. It was uncommon for sailing ships to make intermediate stops, so Liverpool - Belfast - New York would have been unusual. I think sailings from Belfast to New York would probably have gone north of Ireland. After crossing the Atlantic, shipping routes converged on the Grand Banks, east of Newfoundland, and then generally converged again in the Nantucket area, near Cape Cod, to pick up a New York pilot. -- Harry Dodsworth Ottawa Ontario Canada af877@freenet.carleton.ca ----------------------------------------------------------------