The conditions travelling were pretty horrible. The ships were extremely crowded, diseases such as scurvy were rampant, sanitary conditions were appalling and depending on the convict, one might only get to go on the deck possibly once the entire trip. The voyage took anywhere between 3 - 5 months, this all depends on global travelling conditions (wind, currents etc) and the ships capable speed. Free man often would take the same boat as convicts, partially before 1800. By no means the ships that were carrying purely free folk were any better living conditions then convict ships. Ship owners wanted to maximise profit, so packed as many passengers that was physically possible. This slowly improved though after 1803 when Britan introduced the 'Passenger Vessel Act' which limited the amount of passengers via a person to ship ton ratio (one person for every two tons of the ships register)