Transatlantiques

The race of nations (1x1)

Air date: Jul 14, 2019

For four centuries, the ship was the only means of transport between Europe and the Americas. Piled up between the decks of sailing cargo ships, the migrants, driven out of the Old Continent by poverty, religious or political persecution, travelled for a long time in appalling conditions. The improvements made to the steam engine at the beginning of the 19th century would usher in a new era for transatlantic links. In 1843, 80,000 curious people in the port of Bristol witnessed the launch of the SS Great Britain, a revolutionary ship with an iron hull and a submerged propeller. From Southampton to Cherbourg, from Le Havre to Bremen, via Hamburg, Belfast and Saint-Nazaire, European shipowners were bringing ever faster and safer giants of the high seas out of the shipyards. In 1897, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse of Norddeutscher Lloyd sailed to New York in five days and seventeen hours - a record.