How did people travel from England to France in the 18th century?

Question

Please provide a source

Answer 1

People would normally catch the "packet" (sailing ship) across the channel - wind and weather permitting. You would also have to wait for the tide. The wealthy might have had their own boats moored ready for use. The voyage would have taken a lot longer than it does today!

http://www.plimsoll.org/SeaPeople/TravellingBySea/FerryPassengers/default.asp
http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-heritage/background/ferries.htm

"We left London July 28th, 1814, on a hotter day than has been known in this climate for many years. I am not a good traveller, and this heat agreed very ill with me, till, on arriving at Dover, I was refreshed by a sea-bath. As we very much wished to cross the channel with all possible speed, we would not wait for the packet of the following day (it being then about four in the afternoon) but hiring a small boat, resolved to make the passage the same evening, the seamen promising us a voyage of two hours.

The evening was most beautiful; there was but little wind, and the sails flapped in the flagging breeze: the moon rose, and night came on, and with the night a slow, heavy swell, and a fresh breeze, which soon produced a sea so violent as to toss the boat very much. I was dreadfully seasick, and as is usually my custom when thus affected, I slept during the greater part of the night, awaking only from time to time to ask where we were, and to receive the dismal answer each time -- "Not quite half way."

The wind was violent and contrary; if we could not reach Calais, the sailors proposed making for Boulogne. They promised only two hours' sail from shore, yet hour after hour passed, and we were still far distant, when the moon sunk in the red and stormy horizon, and the fast-flashing lightning became pale in the breaking day.

We were proceeding slowly against the wind, when suddenly a thunder squall struck the sail, and the waves rushed into the boat: even the sailors acknowledged that our situation was perilous; but they succeeded in reefing the sail; -- the wind was now changed, and we drove before the gale directly to Calais. As we entered the harbour I awoke from a comfortless sleep, and saw the sun rise broad, red, and cloudless over the pier."
http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/MShelley/sixweek1.html

Answer 2

I don't have a source but common sense would point to boats or ships. There were no aircraft or trains that ran across the English Channel and it is too far to swim. Kind of limits the modes of transportation.

Answer 3

By boat. Typically one with masted sails.

Answer 4

By boats!? what else. through the English Channel.

Answer 5

By sailing ship

Answer 6

by Boats.

Answer 7

Who would want to?

Answer 8

Um, boat....