passenger shipping from London to Bordeaux c.1902

[smellingbottle]

I have two characters who travel from London to Bordeaux around 1902. From searching around on various 'maritime London' sites, including that of the Maritime History Museum, and googling 'port of London', it seems they would have been likely to travel by General Navigation Company steamer which ran a lot of Channel cargo and passenger services

Comments

[sollersuk]

Most references I have seen to travelling to Bordeaux in that period have been from Southampton; that saved all the boring bits down the Thames and much of the unpleasantness down the Channel - a couple of hours on the train saved a lot of trouble. When passenger ships went from the Thames, I think they were already mostly from Tilbury.

[smellingbottle]

Yes, Southampton sounded like a more logical idea to me, too, but my characters are based on two actual people who made this journey, and there's a specific reference in correspondence to leaving 'from the Thames' (which may, of course, as you say, be Tilbury). Their relative poverty may have some bearing on how they travelled. Thanks for this.

[anonymous]

Did you find this site? (put the http etc in front - I can't find a way to prove I'm human to post it complete!)

portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.135/chapterId/2744/The-port-in-1901.html

It is about the ships in London during the 1901 census night, including docks, routes, pictures and so on. I would imagine that passengers would embark from the dockside (which they would reach by railway or horse-drawn omnibus, perhaps). I doubt that a ship would make a special stop at a pier to pick up passengers, although this is mere conjecture on my part.