I have considered starting a " Roll-On, Roll-Off Ferries " thread for a while, and think that it
will be of interest to a reasonable number of Trucknet members. Although I was driving lorries
full time from the age of 21, I was a late starter in setting foot into countries outside of the
United Kingdom, be it for transport, work. or pleasure. Whilst thinking about starting this thread,
it was at the forefront of my mind that the first time that I left the UK was in 1982, aged 38
when I sailed from Hull to Rotterdam, on North Sea Ferries M.V. Norland, and returned a couple
of days later on M.V. Norstar. My destination was Braunsweig, in the north of what was West Germany.
Whilst recently talking to a friend of mine regarding starting this thread, he quickly reminded
me that I did a trip to Dublin in 1979 in a Ford Transit van, sailing from Liverpool on the B+I Line
M.V.Munster, and reminded me that Dublin is in Ireland and not the UK.
With regard to my mention of North Sea Ferries M.V. Norland, not long after my journey to West Germany,
The Falkland Islands were invaded by the Argentine Military, and the Government under Margaret Thatcher
quickly assembled a Task Force to sail to the South Atlantic. One of many civilian ships that were involved
was Norland. The vessel was sent to Portsmouth, and spent just over a week there being modified and fitted
with a helipad, and loaded with a large number of military vehicles and equipment, and several thousand
British military personnel. After the end of the conflict, Norland was used as a hospital ship, and did many
repatriation journeys to Argentina and Brazil, carrying Argentine soldiers home. Seventeen months after
Norland left Hull in 1982, she returned to the River Humber in a rather sorry looking state, and was given
a civic reception and welcome by thousands of people lining the quayside. Several weeks later, and after
a massive amount of work, Norland returned to service, Hull to Rotterdam. Sometime later in the 1980s,
Norland was sent to a shipbuilder in mainland Europe, was cut in half, up and down, and received a new
centre section which increased its length by about 60 ft. Toward the end of the 1980s, 2 new vessels came
on to the Hull to Rotterdam route, they were Norsea and Norsun, and Norland was transferred to the
Hull to Zeebrugge route. The 2 pictures are Norland at Portsmouth undergoing the necessary work that was
needed for its journey to the South Atlantic. NMPs.
Rough list of the ferries I’ve used over the years with a few probably missed.All car trips not truck.
Free Enterprise III,IV.
ST George.
Juliana.
Herald,Spirit,Pride of Free Enterprise.
Tor Brittania and Scandinavia.
Prins Albert III
Quiberon
Tiziano
Flaminia
Boccaccio
La Suprema,Superba,Excellent
St Anselm,Christopher and all of the following P and O Dover Calais fleet to date.
Last but not least QE2 which I can remember adding a Belgian car and caravan outfit to its car deck/garage in Cherbourg destined for NY.The caravan had to be craned into/out of the hold because it was too wide for the car deck hatch.Was surreal to hear the message would all passengers with cars report to the pursers office on arrival in NY.
Ray Smyth:
With regard to my mention of North Sea Ferries M.V. Norland, not long after my journey to West Germany,
The Falkland Islands were invaded by the Argentine Military, and the Government under Margaret Thatcher
quickly assembled a Task Force to sail to the South Atlantic. One of many civilian ships that were involved
was Norland. The vessel was sent to Portsmouth, and spent just over a week there being modified and fitted
with a helipad, and loaded with a large number of military vehicles and equipment, and several thousand
British military personnel. After the end of the conflict, Norland was used as a hospital ship, and did many
repatriation journeys to Argentina and Brazil, carrying Argentine soldiers home. Seventeen months after
Norland left Hull in 1982, she returned to the River Humber in a rather sorry looking state, and was given
a civic reception and welcome by thousands of people lining the quayside. Several weeks later, and after
a massive amount of work, Norland returned to service, Hull to Rotterdam. Sometime later in the 1980s,
Norland was sent to a shipbuilder in mainland Europe, was cut in half, up and down, and received a new
centre section which increased its length by about 60 ft. Toward the end of the 1980s, 2 new vessels came
on to the Hull to Rotterdam route, they were Norsea and Norsun, and Norland was transferred to the
Hull to Zeebrugge route. The 2 pictures are Norland at Portsmouth undergoing the necessary work that was
needed for its journey to the South Atlantic. NMPs.
Ray Smyth.
The Norland came into Smith’s Dock on the Tyne for refit after the Falklands conflict.
She was in a very sorry state, the ship must have been in the thick of the action down there.
I took several loads of shot blast into the dock,(co-incidentally from Scan-grit at Melton nr Hull).
Delivering straight onto the dockside the damage was even more visible! There was a a row of indentations right on the waterline nearly the full length of the ship.
She must have been strafed when the at the limit of the cannons range! A very lucky ship.
Regards Kev.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet run the Ben My Chree ro-ro at the moment,12500 gross wt., does two trips to Heysham every 24 hours. She’s in Douglas harbour at this very moment,■■■■■■■,going nowhere because of the severe gale we are having.
She does sail in some rough seas as can be seen……………….
A great topic for a new thread I think.
I did my first ever ferry crossing around 1974 - in the back of the family Vauxhall Viva, and just loved it.
Once I was driving for a living, I didn’t care if it was 2pm or 2am and a Force 10 gale, I just loved being on a ship, even the dodgy ‘12 drivers maximum’ freighters.
Ferries of Dover - a great book full of photos, sorry I can’t rotate it, and I couldn’t stop it uploading twice - but if ferries are your thing, see if you can find a copy.
The second pic is probably the smallest RoRo ferry I ever went on -(excluding cable ferries), I took the pic as I was on an identical ship going the opposite way across Lake Konstanz in southern Germany, I was an owner driver at the time, and it was just as cheap to catch the ferry across as it would have been to drive round.
I never did find the duty free shop onboard though.
It was May 1985, and the last job that I had done " Over the water " was in 1982, Hull to Rotterdam.
I got a phone call from a local company, Bradburn Camping of Wigan, they were a major supplier
of many items of camping equipment to Eurocamp, who have British owned campsites, mainly in
France. After loading my Mercedes 508D, I went down to Plymouth and sailed across to Roscoff
in Brittany, and on down to a transport depot at Carquefou near Nantes. Bradburn Camping used
the depot as a supply base throughout the summer months, and employed a young university
student, equipped with a Renault van, to top up whatever was needed at the campsites.
What I didn’t know was that there was a load of camping gear for me to deliver to 3 campsites on
the Brittany coast, on my way back to Roscoff. I just managed to get back to Roscoff in time for
the night sailing back to Plymouth. I sailed each way on Brittany Ferries Tregastel, and during each
journey, most of the drivers and lorries were from Spain. Click pictures for full image.
Having put some details of my trip to Brittany on my last post, some other things came to mind.
On the Monday morning about 4 a.m., I set off south bound on the M6 for the 290 miles journey
to Plymouth, and got to the Ferryport about 10.15 a.m. so that I would make the 12 noon sailing.
About 20 minutes later, an unusual lorry parked up beside me in the next lane. It was a Barreiros
Dodge chinese 6 wheeler from Spain. The Dodge had fridge type bodywork, about 26 ft long with
a fridge motor on the front of the body. Its tyres looked bigger than usual, probably 1100 x 20s or
12.225 tubeless. A strange noise was coming from the lorry, it was Thump…Thump… Thump…
about 1 Thump per second. The driver, whose command of English was far superior to my limited
Spanish, told me that the noise was from an oxygen pump, fitted to the side of the chassis, so that
the live lobsters, and other shellfish that he was carrying were kept alive throughout the journey.
He went on to say that if the oxygen pump failed, an identical pump on the other side of the lorry
would automatically start up, and send a signal to a small instrument that was in his pocket.
Inside the fridge there were 12 water filled containers, all connected to the adjacent container to
allow the oxygenated water to circulate throughout the crustaceans.
At 12 noon, " Tregastel " departed for Roscoff, and me and the Spanish driver sat down for a meal in
the Drivers Restaurant. He said that he had loaded at Mallaig the previous day, and left there about
5 p.m., and proceeded on his 630 miles journey to Plymouth, and arrived at Plymouth soon after me,
and managed with 3 short shuteyes on his way down. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out
a piece of official looking paper, it was a speeding ticket issued by Cheshire Police for doing 79 MPH
about 5 a.m. that morning on the M6 between Haydock and Warrington. What a character.
Almost 7 years had gone by since 1985 without doing any trips " Over the water " with a lorry or a van.
Early in 1992, I got an urgent phone call from The Carpet Tile Company at Walton Summit Ind Estate
near Preston, one of my occasional customers. It was young Andy, He said, in his usual cheeky manner,
" Get yourself and your Transit van up here straight away, I have an urgent job for you " Apparently,
earlier that day, they had received 20 pallets of wool yarn from their supplier in Dendemonde, near
Brussels in Belgium. An important pallet of yarn was missing, and a wrong pallet, was labelled up for
an address in Holland. There were 12 boxes on each pallet, and each box was about the size of a tea chest.
I had to take the wrong pallet to Dendemonde, and return with the correct one, which was required
for a very urgent job. I loaded the Transit and set off to Dover, and sailed about midnight to Ostend
on Prinses Marie Christine. I drove off the ship about 6 a.m. and drove the 70 or so miles to the factory
at Dendermonde. The warehouse at the factory turned me round and away in less than 20 minutes,
and I was back on the quay at Ostend by 12.30, having to wait for the return sailing which was due to
depart at 6 p.m. During mid afternoon, a Belgian artic parked beside me in the lanes, the driver was
a Dutch chap, and because he had seen that my vehicle was from UK, he came and had a chat with me.
He was in his mid 40s, and said that he had been driving lorries for about 20 years, been to almost every
country in Europe, but never been to the UK. He said that his journey was a bit of a last minute job,
and he hadn’t been able to find a UK road atlas in time for his journey. I asked him where he was going
to over in the UK, he said " Kelloggs at Manchester " so I showed him where to go from my road atlas,
and later on, I told him that he could keep the road atlas for his next UK trip. We sailed back on
Reine Astrid, we both had a meal on board, and a couple of beers, and he insisted on paying all of the
restaurant bill as a thank you for my help and information. I told him to be careful over in the UK
because we all drive on the wrong side of the road, compared with you Europeans. Happy Days. NMPs.
Ray Smyth:
Having put some details of my trip to Brittany on my last post, some other things came to mind.
On the Monday morning about 4 a.m., I set off south bound on the M6 for the 290 miles journey
to Plymouth, and got to the Ferryport about 10.15 a.m. so that I would make the 12 noon sailing.
About 20 minutes later, an unusual lorry parked up beside me in the next lane. It was a Barreiros
Dodge chinese 6 wheeler from Spain. The Dodge had fridge type bodywork, about 26 ft long with
a fridge motor on the front of the body. Its tyres looked bigger than usual, probably 1100 x 20s or
12.225 tubeless. A strange noise was coming from the lorry, it was Thump…Thump… Thump…
about 1 Thump per second. The driver, whose command of English was far superior to my limited
Spanish, told me that the noise was from an oxygen pump, fitted to the side of the chassis, so that
the live lobsters, and other shellfish that he was carrying were kept alive throughout the journey.
He went on to say that if the oxygen pump failed, an identical pump on the other side of the lorry
would automatically start up, and send a signal to a small instrument that was in his pocket.
Inside the fridge there were 12 water filled containers, all connected to the adjacent container to
allow the oxygenated water to circulate throughout the crustaceans.
At 12 noon, " Tregastel " departed for Roscoff, and me and the Spanish driver sat down for a meal in
the Drivers Restaurant. He said that he had loaded at Mallaig the previous day, and left there about
5 p.m., and proceeded on his 630 miles journey to Plymouth, and arrived at Plymouth soon after me,
and managed with 3 short shuteyes on his way down. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out
a piece of official looking paper, it was a speeding ticket issued by Cheshire Police for doing 79 MPH
about 5 a.m. that morning on the M6 between Haydock and Warrington. What a character.
Ray Smyth.
Those shell fish boys did not hang around Ray and nearly always had 2 drivers as they never stopped. On a Tuesday morning
about 15 would ship out of Poole heading for Spain. They use to pump the sea water out of there tanks on Poole docks and
re pump fresh sea water on. Some good blokes on those motors.
Ray Smyth:
Having put some details of my trip to Brittany on my last post, some other things came to mind.
On the Monday morning about 4 a.m., I set off south bound on the M6 for the 290 miles journey
to Plymouth, and got to the Ferryport about 10.15 a.m. so that I would make the 12 noon sailing.
About 20 minutes later, an unusual lorry parked up beside me in the next lane. It was a Barreiros
Dodge chinese 6 wheeler from Spain. The Dodge had fridge type bodywork, about 26 ft long with
a fridge motor on the front of the body. Its tyres looked bigger than usual, probably 1100 x 20s or
12.225 tubeless. A strange noise was coming from the lorry, it was Thump…Thump… Thump…
about 1 Thump per second. The driver, whose command of English was far superior to my limited
Spanish, told me that the noise was from an oxygen pump, fitted to the side of the chassis, so that
the live lobsters, and other shellfish that he was carrying were kept alive throughout the journey.
He went on to say that if the oxygen pump failed, an identical pump on the other side of the lorry
would automatically start up, and send a signal to a small instrument that was in his pocket.
Inside the fridge there were 12 water filled containers, all connected to the adjacent container to
allow the oxygenated water to circulate throughout the crustaceans.
At 12 noon, " Tregastel " departed for Roscoff, and me and the Spanish driver sat down for a meal in
the Drivers Restaurant. He said that he had loaded at Mallaig the previous day, and left there about
5 p.m., and proceeded on his 630 miles journey to Plymouth, and arrived at Plymouth soon after me,
and managed with 3 short shuteyes on his way down. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out
a piece of official looking paper, it was a speeding ticket issued by Cheshire Police for doing 79 MPH
about 5 a.m. that morning on the M6 between Haydock and Warrington. What a character.
Ray Smyth.
Those shell fish boys did not hang around Ray and nearly always had 2 drivers as they never stopped. On a Tuesday morning
about 15 would ship out of Poole heading for Spain. They use to pump the sea water out of there tanks on Poole docks and
re pump fresh sea water on. Some good blokes on those motors.
Heres a couple of them.
NMP.
1
0
Hi Dean, Thank you for the 2 pictures of the Fish motors. The MACK with the fridge trailer reminded me of a journey to
North Wales in the middle of a Friday night. Someone at Rank Hovis had cocked up with a 2 ton order of flour for a very
large retail bakery in Porthmadog. I got the job of getting the flour there, no later than 4 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Rather than having to set off about 1.30 a.m. , I left the depot about 8 p.m. and got parked up near Caernarvon about
10.30 p.m., and got into the sleeper bunk to sleep until about 3 a.m. Around midnight I was woken by a banging and
scraping sound, so I pulled back the curtain and saw that about 8 cars and small vans had arrived on this large lay-by,
and the local boys were unloading large nets of shellfish on to the tarmac and dragging them to one side. Not long
after, a Spanish artic fridge lorry arrived and the driver opened the fridge door near to the front of the trailer, similar
to the one in your picture, and the lads started throwing their nets of shellfish up to the driver in the trailer. Once loaded,
the driver appeared to be paying each of the lads, and off he went, probably to meet up with some more Welsh Cocklepickers.
These Spanish shellfish lorries are obviously purpose built to carry live “Pescados y Mariscos” in oxygenated water, so I wonder
what they carried to the UK, perhaps tomatoes, grapes, onions, or other fresh fruit.
Ray Smyth:
Having put some details of my trip to Brittany on my last post, some other things came to mind.
On the Monday morning about 4 a.m., I set off south bound on the M6 for the 290 miles journey
to Plymouth, and got to the Ferryport about 10.15 a.m. so that I would make the 12 noon sailing.
About 20 minutes later, an unusual lorry parked up beside me in the next lane. It was a Barreiros
Dodge chinese 6 wheeler from Spain. The Dodge had fridge type bodywork, about 26 ft long with
a fridge motor on the front of the body. Its tyres looked bigger than usual, probably 1100 x 20s or
12.225 tubeless. A strange noise was coming from the lorry, it was Thump…Thump… Thump…
about 1 Thump per second. The driver, whose command of English was far superior to my limited
Spanish, told me that the noise was from an oxygen pump, fitted to the side of the chassis, so that
the live lobsters, and other shellfish that he was carrying were kept alive throughout the journey.
He went on to say that if the oxygen pump failed, an identical pump on the other side of the lorry
would automatically start up, and send a signal to a small instrument that was in his pocket.
Inside the fridge there were 12 water filled containers, all connected to the adjacent container to
allow the oxygenated water to circulate throughout the crustaceans.
At 12 noon, " Tregastel " departed for Roscoff, and me and the Spanish driver sat down for a meal in
the Drivers Restaurant. He said that he had loaded at Mallaig the previous day, and left there about
5 p.m., and proceeded on his 630 miles journey to Plymouth, and arrived at Plymouth soon after me,
and managed with 3 short shuteyes on his way down. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out
a piece of official looking paper, it was a speeding ticket issued by Cheshire Police for doing 79 MPH
about 5 a.m. that morning on the M6 between Haydock and Warrington. What a character.
Ray Smyth.
Those shell fish boys did not hang around Ray and nearly always had 2 drivers as they never stopped. On a Tuesday morning
about 15 would ship out of Poole heading for Spain. They use to pump the sea water out of there tanks on Poole docks and
re pump fresh sea water on. Some good blokes on those motors.
That’s a Mack Ultraliner, often fitted with Mack’s own motor, V8 or straight 6, and Mack’s own 16 spd gearbox too - a ‘round the houses affair’, with 3rd & 4th positions in the ‘wrong’ place.
