L8FR8:
Newhaven Dieppe ferries, Had a few ro/ro running for a few years,only got pics of the Senlac,Chartres,when it was Sealink.Had a few rough crossings on here when i use to go with my Dad in the early days.
Memories, I regularly traveled on both the Senlac & the Chartres, I have the worst memories of the Senlac, the drivers cabins were way down deep and for a long period the ship had a problem with ‘prop shaft bearings’ (I spoke to an engineer one night) & the bloody noise from the cabins particularly on the port side was awfull and made it very difficult to sleep. (usually managed it after a one hit from Silla or Sagunto though )
L8FR8:
Newhaven Dieppe ferries, Had a few ro/ro running for a few years,only got pics of the Senlac,Chartres,when it was Sealink.Had a few rough crossings on here when i use to go with my Dad in the early days.
I have many memories of the Senlac…and its crew, when there were few passengers in the winter most of the crew were ‘under the influence’ by the time it sailed (2300hrs,Newhaven - Dieppe)
Sunday nights there would be the usual motors …Chambers & Cook, Reprodux, the bloke with the bushy eyebrows on Pitt & Scott, a few Spaniards, S. Johns pulling Seabourne tilts and a 2300 DAF 8-legger fridge from Scotland with shellfish on board.
One night as it was about to sail, the usual crew were getting the lorries chained down when the slurred message came over…“Stand by for a laugh” instead of the usual ‘Stand by fore and aft’, we knew it would be a rough one, we even had to cook our own grub if we wanted anything…
I’ve just watched the Italian Job (again) it was good to see the old Townsend F.E 1, I travelled on it a few times in the 70s, it had a flat bottom, no stabillisers and made me sick every time…■■■■ boats, I hate 'em.
peter mill:
There was a service from Southampton to Porto.Trailers only.
I used a ferry in the 80’s called the Thomas Wehr, from Poole to Viana de Castello, just north of Oporto, which was mainly unacompanied trailers, but there were about four of us on the innaugural crossing, with about four trailers each. Once in Portugal I stayed there for about three months tipping and loading trailers to and from the Algarve, Lisbon and Oporto and back to the boat. British International used to send trailers on it too.
Ive got some photos of it, I will try and find them and put them on here.
GS
I remember travelling that route from Poole to Viana do Castelo in the early 90’s but it wasn’t on the Thomas Wehr. I only used it once…well, twice as I had to come back on the flamin’ thing. Ship was called the “Seafowl”. It had a French captain and a Polish crew. The food was pretty awful. They only had Pernod available duty free but it was given to us totally free of charge so I ended up with two liters on my return to Poole! I took explosives down to Portugal in a little seven & half tonner.
The driver’s accommodation were converted 20 ft containers welded on the deck at the aft of the boat
Can anyone remember when they stretched the Coutances and Purbeck by about 100 feet would have been about 1984/85 ish.[/quote]
Yep, used them quite a bit when I was taking explosives into Europe. One of the few routes available to us with that sort of load.
Parked in the explosive area waiting to board. Not sure if it’s the Coutances or the Purbeck but they had been ‘stretched’ by then.
The Gabby Wehr was the freight ferry Portsmouth-LeHavre.Only 12 drivers,if any more the truck was loaded and driver went on P&O as foot passenger.It docked in LeHavre along from the terminal,a taxi was supplied to re-join your truck.UNLIMITED duty free,we used to stock up with whisky as we were loading Paris for Sweden where alcohol was very expensive.
welshphil:
The Gabby Wehr was the freight ferry Portsmouth-LeHavre.Only 12 drivers,if any more the truck was loaded and driver went on P&O as foot passenger.It docked in LeHavre along from the terminal,a taxi was supplied to re-join your truck.UNLIMITED duty free,we used to stock up with whisky as we were loading Paris for Sweden where alcohol was very expensive.
That was the ferry I was on about on p2. Horrible. I forgot about it using a different berth in Le Havre. IIRC it took ages to unload. Occasionally we used to do a “flyer” for IBM out of Portsmouth if LKW Walter was short on Italian work, a “guaranteed” delivery by 10.00 am to Evry, south of Paris. You never made it if you went on that thing!
The two ships, Melrose Abbey and Bolton Abbey were on the Hull Europoort route until 1971 when they closed as they could not compete with the then North Sea Ferries now P&O
I have not seen any mention of the RIF ferry another old one anyone else remember this one Ipswich-Rotterdam I think they packed up in the 70s
cheers Johnnie
sammyopisite:
I have not seen any mention of the RIF ferry another old one anyone else remember this one Ipswich-Rotterdam I think they packed up in the 70s
cheers Johnnie
I travelled on the RIF ferry quite a few times,from memory one big table for the drivers to sit round for dinner.It was nice an clean as were the cabins,plus the crew were and food was good.One time i got nicked in ipswitch for two cartons of ■■■■,you had to take your duty free into the customs office then they would search the lorry if they felt like it,i got delayed half a day just for haveing the extra carton and fined £20.Happy days!
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