Before the Suez Canal was opened up in 1869, the trip to Asia via the Cape of Good Hope lasted at least six months, but often more because of the hazards of navigation, especially in the days of sailing ships. Groundings and forced stopovers due to damages or storms were frequent occurrences, which sometimes forced Missionaries to throw part of their luggage overboard. But overall, the casualties were very limited since out of 4260 leavers they were only eighteen casualties at sea, among which several caused by disease, and only one shipwreck: that of the SS Mercedes which disappeared in the Sea of China at the end of 1860 with on its board eight young Missionaries headed for Japan and Mandchuria.

The crossing was a strainful physical test, with the inevitable crises of seasickness and sometimes the first onsets of exotic diseases, and it often represented, after separation from the family, the second serious moral challenge for the beginning Missionaries. Boredom, the loss of usual reference points, climate changes, potential or real dangers linked to navigation seriously shook up their initial enthusiasm. Solidarity and mutual help were essential for the Missionaries who generally travelled in small groups: individual or collective prayer (the state of the sea did not allow regular celebration of the mass), study (especially initiation to foreign languages) and proper distractions took up most of their time.

Some of them had their first preaching experiences with the members of the crew, trying to bring them to confession, a delicate experience given the often quite approximative morality of most seamen, the most hardened among which did their best to bully them around, especially during periods of anti-clericalism in France. In fact, the moral comfort of the trip depended greatly upon the Captain’s convictions and the extent to which he protected his passengers.

In Asia, the landing locations were mainly Pondichéry for the Missionaries of India, and Macao, then Hong-Kong after 1842, for those headed to the Far East. In these cities, the procures offered them a temporary shelter which gave them some time to organize the most difficult part of their trip, the one leading them to their mission. As they learnt to adapt to the language, food and atmospheric conditions, a new training began, that of local customs, and for many, that of clandestinity. From then on, the missionary who had come to be of service to local Christians, started to depend on them. Only through their help could he survive, and he sometimes died along with them.