Les from Hull has it right, we folkies like our ships with sails. Unfortunately, mariners -- and ship owners -- were more interested in getting from cargo and/or passengers from point A to point B quickly, cheaply and reliably. A trans-Atlantic trip by sail could easily take 2-3 months especially when the winds and currents (think Gulf stream) were against you. As a result, the transition to steam began in the 1840's. Sail hung on for the South American and Austrailian runs because of the amount of coal needed by early steamships. Coal and cargo compete for space and the very long runs took too much coal to make the cargo profitable, especially for low value, high bulk items like grain, fertilizer, ores etc. As steam engines became more efficient, the value of sail diminished and was finally extinguished. Very sad.

If you want to put your characters on a sailing vessel, it would make more sense to push the date back 3 or 4 decades if they're going to be in the transatlantic trade. If you want to keep the 1900 date, put your characters on a coastwise schooner -- or make the vessel a small transatlantic steamship: there were lots to choose from. And for that, the archives at Ellis Island might be a good resource.