Letters Home

Posts : 2558 Join date : 2009-04-06 Age : 61 Location : UK

How long would it have taken for a letter from Zululand to reach England in 1879.

Subject: Re: Letters Home Mon May 12, 2014 10:27 am

John
Pretty slow, by boat to Cape Town then by boat to the UK, weeks rather than days. Judging by the time it takes for me to get books from the UK and The States not very different from today really Very Happy

Cheers

Posts : 589 Join date : 2013-05-07 Location : Brecon

John

Cape Town to Portsmouth in 1879 - about 28 days; then you add the land journeys at each end.

Guest

The news of the defeat at Isandhlwana
arrived on the 11th of February.

Posts : 589 Join date : 2013-05-07 Location : Brecon

But the bad news had the advantage of the telegraph from Madeira. I was answering the original question - how long a letter would take!

Guest

yeah i know Salute

Subject: Re: Letters Home Tue May 13, 2014 6:54 am

Telegraph from either PMB or Landmans Drift to Cape town, by sea to Madeira then by telegraph to England.
Cheers

Posts : 947 Join date : 2011-10-21 Location : Algoa Bay

Hi All,
Correct , there was a land station or terminal telegraph point in Madeira where SA-UK bound ships called as a matter of procedure, so as to speed the news on. from Natal by telegraph, via undersea cable, to England.
However, in answer to the question about door to door letter transit time, it is safe to assume 4-5 weeks. In this the time elements were of the order of 24-28 days at sea , the balance being land terminal transit times at either node.
In the annals it is recorded that passing ships wanting to pass urgent news on to each other would sail past each other close enough to read messages written on large blackboards fitted to their superstructures and visible to each other. This method was faster than the use of signaling flags.

regards

barry

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