Freighter travel from the east coast of the U.S. to Copenhagen

Question

I will be moving to Denmark in June, and thought I could take a cargo ship to Copenhagen.

Would it be possible? I searched a bit and all I could find was cargo ships to other countries.

Also, the main reason I want to do this is to take my personal effects with me. Would it be possible to bring boxes and boxes of books with me? What would be the procedure?

Thanks for your help in advance.

@RodrigodeAzevedo going to Copenhagen from the West Coast would be a long trip indeed. Better to sail to Beijing or Vladivostok and take a train to Europe. — Robert Columbia, Mar 05 '19 at 11:24
Ship your stuff in a container and fly yourself. Trying to couple these two things will make it needlessly complicated and expensive. People move internationally all the time, check out some international movers. — Hilmar, Mar 05 '19 at 12:03

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 05 '19 at 00:48

You might get a ship going to Copenhagen, but you're more likely to get a ship going to a major European port like Antwerp or Rotterdam. If you can be flexible and take a plane/train/other ship for part of your journey you can certainly do most of what you want.

Don't expect to take 'boxes and boxes of books' with you. Passenger quarters won't accommodate them, and the ship won't necessarily have a hold to store them.Take clothes and personal effects and arrange separate shipping for everything else.

There are agencies that specialise in passenger transport on freight ships. Contact them and explain what you want. They'll be able to advise.

Here are a few I found with Google:

Cargo Ship Voyages

Freighter Travel

Freighter Expeditions

I have no affiliations, nor do I make any recommendations.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '19 at 10:26

Freight ships are designed for carrying freight, sure. But freight in bulk, not your freight. The hold of the ship will be full of whatever the ship is carrying, be it containers, oil, coal, grain or whatever. The crew compartments are designed to be as big as they need to be but no bigger, since any extra space (and weight) could more profitably be used to carry more cargo. It's not the 1950s, when ship cargo was loaded in small pieces and there might well be space in the hold for a bit extra. Nowadays, everything is in bulk and the holds are just big silos into which product is dumped by large cranes.

There are also customs issues at the far end and the logistics of getting all your stuff onto the ship.

I don't know for sure, but I would be very surprised if what you're asking would be possible.

Freighter travel from the east coast of the U.S. to Copenhagen

2 Answers2