A 1900s liner once made the transatlantic journey in a record four days, but the average was around five days. By the 1950s, passenger liners were made obsolete by airplanes that could make the journey in hours, not days.

During the "Golden Age" of ocean liners in the early 1920s, a standard transatlantic crossing from Europe (usually Southampton or Cherbourg) to New York took approximately 5 to 9 days. The actual duration depended heavily on the specific vessel and the weather conditions of the North Atlantic. Famous "superliners" of the era, such as the RMS Mauretania or the RMS Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic), were built for speed and could consistently make the trip in about 5 or 6 days. The Mauretania, for instance, held the "Blue Riband" for the fastest crossing for many years, maintaining a speed of about 26 knots. However, for smaller or less prestigious passenger ships, or for those traveling in the winter months when heavy seas forced a slower pace, the journey could stretch to 10 days or more. Compared to the weeks-long journeys of the 19th-century sailing era, these 1920s steamers represented a peak in maritime engineering, offering a relatively fast and reliable connection between the Old World and the New World before the age of commercial aviation.