This article is a travel topic.

Freighter travel is a less crowded, cheaper alternative for crossing a sea or ocean, not using airplanes or commercial cruise ships or ferries.

Understand

Essentially, you are paying a cargo vessel to transport you along with whatever they are ferrying across the sea. Probably you will need someone to introduce you into the freighter world, because it is a bit of a fuss for a company to take a passenger when they also take a multi million dollar cargo, however the crews seem to enjoy the company of passengers since the work is very monotonous.

There are some agents arranging trips, which apparantly charge around USD 100 a day. With an introduction it might be as cheap as USD 25.

A cheaper alternative is becoming part of the crew. http://findacrew.net can help you with this.

Eat and Sleep

Typically, you will have a small cabin and access to crew facilities, such as kitchens and common areas.

See and Do

There are no major activities, restaurants, besides the mess hall, or other diversions aboard. At sea also no TV and radio, but much video and sometimes literature. Some ships may have a (sea water-) sauna, a gym and a table tennis court aboard.

Stay safe and healthy

Because of international regulations, unless the ship has a doctor aboard, the ship can only carry fewer than 12 passengers. Consequently, there is a lot of time that one has to oneself. Passengers are likely to receive a basic security training (Here are the emergency missiles).