Google is your friend.
Start reading up on the 18th century in vivid detail. Every thing about it, from clothing, to food, to technology, etc. Start with wikipedia, then work your way to other websites. Do a lot of reading.
You might also want to know what decade you're working in, by the way.
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.First of all, you'll have difficulties finding a dedicated ocean-going passenger ship during that time, most of those were freight hulls. You'd be on one hell of a ship if it ever goes faster than 8 knots. Modern replica East Indiamen - consideerd one of the best ship designs during that time - manage about 5-6.
For a (lenghty but entertaining) overview of late 17th and early 18 century living, I highly recommend The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. It even has some sailing in it, and is very thoroughly researched.
kurushio
Educational tidbit: The purely theoretical top speed of every displacing sailing vessel is determined by it's waterline length in feet (1.34 times the square root of it). So, if you take a typical East Indiamen, you can be sure it could never exceed 15-17 knots. (Theoretically, mind you. Even for a 19th century tea clipper, that would be about the fastest average speed possible.)
edited 28th Mar '11 2:21:05 AM by kurushio

Who here knows a lot about the 18th century and can help me?
I want to know how fast a passenger ship in the 18th century was.
"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice." — Joseph De Maistre.