Just thought that a mention is in order as one off Southampton’s longest serving owner drivers has passed a few weeks back and no mention of him,
RIP Mr Ian Lawson.
Hi John
That wagon spent some time in our fleet serving farms around Hampshire
Old school-got his notes on the steering wheel 
The staff from Brittany Ferries used to take photos of the lorries boarding the ferry at Ouistreham then drivers were able to purchase them on board.
That was a guy named Rossie from Havant way. Gerbil
Bob Garnett was a manager for R&A then he set up his one company Garnett Eurotrans using subbie’s for Portuguese round trips.
He was a manager at Euro PSL in Portsmouth port.
Yes! That’s exactly what they did. I have a couple of pics they took of me driving onto their ferries when I was returning from North Africa. They certainly cornered the market! 
Did they run ferries direct to North Africa ?
No. We ran from various Channel Ports to either France or Spain depending on urgency, then from Algeciras in Spain (nr Gib) by ferry to Tangiers. Or if it was Tunisia, we ran via Marseille or Genoa.
HOWEVER, there was actually a direct freight only ship that ran from Southampton to Tangiers, putting in at Oporto (to drop off unaccompanied trailers). It was operated by RO-RO Express and lasted about six months before folding. I was on its maiden voyage in winter, which hit a hurricane in Biscay and ended up taking longer than it took to drive overland.
I remember the direct service to Porto, and the Stena Line from Southampton to Cherbourg, nicknamed the Love Boat, probably from relationships with the staff and bored housewives on a trip to France up for some fun.
I think the real love boat was the Pride of Bilbao which ran from Portsmouth to Bilbao but doubled up as a mini-cruise for those who stayed on board for the round trip which took all weekend. We often used to board on Saturday afternoon and emerge from the ship on Monday morning the worse for wear; and then have to face the gruelling ten-hour drive down to Santa Lucia, well south of Madrid. It was a killer but we did have some fun!
Great comments, I used to use the Bilbao and the Santander ferry, and definitely didn’t want to disembark when arriving in Spain as I was so relaxed, both vessels had a swimming pool, two cinemas and a lecturer on board to go whale watching in the Bay of Biscay which has a reputation for being rough all year round.
The meals on board were excellent, sea food, leg of lamb with wine jus, we had to use the Spanish route to deliver JCB’s for Motivo Lda in Porto and Lisbon and couldn’t transit France due to a legal issue with the French owned Manitou machines.
The BF staff used to call the school kids that had never been abroad on their first trip without their parents petits éléphants who ran around the corridors by the cabins waking everyone up, it was all that sugar rush from buying sweets in Portsmouth port shop.
