The conditions on the wooden ships during the slave trade were incredibly brutal. The longer someone was on the ship, the worse the conditions became. These ships would pick up cargo like an airport bus, stopping at different places until they had a full load. The ships would stay off the coast of Africa, in sweltering heat, until they had enough slaves to set sail. Africans often spent longer on these ships than they did crossing the Atlantic. Some ships acted as permanent offshore prisons, passing captives to other ships. The Dutch, British, and French ships spent an average of 120-200 days on the coast. Millions of Africans spent months at sea before even reaching the Americas. The length of time on board determined survival, making the situation worse than originally thought.