Ferry land - which ferries have you taken and which do you wish to take before Charon rows you across the Styx.

[brogdale]

One that I'd love to take but can't, and none of us will, is the Harty Ferry across the Swale from Harty Ferry near Uplees, Oare to the islet of Harty on the Isle of Sheppey.



Both the mainland and Sheppey jetties still remain, but the last ferry boat apparently fell to pieces in 1941 and no service resumed after the war with any traffic having to use the bridge must further West along the Swale.

The photo shows the Ferry House Inn over on the island and the rights to operate the ferry were, and still are, held by the landlord of the Inn.

 

[moochedit]

I think only dover to calais and holyhead to dublin but it's probably about 35 years since i last went on one so not 100% certain.

 

[cesare]

Pukiest one I've been on is The Scillonian that goes from Penzance to the Isles of Scilly. Affectionately known as The Vomit Comet.

Me too,!!!

 

[smmudge]

Dover-Calais
Malta-Gozo that's a great service!
Poole/Weymouth/Portsmouth/Southampton - Guernsey
Guernsey - St Malo which stops at Jersey on the way out
Guernsey - Sark and Guernsey - Herm though I feel like I'm stretching the definition of ferry now.
The Thorpe Park one.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Butts Ferry perhaps? A rare hand-drawn one in the modern age. More likely the Starcross to Exmouth one.

Here's the gen on Butts Ferry:

Butts Ferry - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

They used to have a little sign up until a few years ago that read:

Tis yer you catch the ferry
A funny boat it be
But it gets you across the river
For only 20p

It's gone up quite a bit now, I think.

I guess it was that one - I'm sure it was pretty much in or near the city centre.

 

[petee]

 

[SpookyFrank]

The charter for the Teignmouth to Shaldon ferry is up for grabs if anyone's interested. I would actually love to do it but I have no idea how to operate a boat.

MSN

 

[planetgeli]

Yeah but where is it?

 

[SpookyFrank]

Elsewhere in Devon, the Plymouth- Cremyll ferry is out of action because the slipway on the Cornish side is falling into the sea.

 

[planetgeli]

The charter for the Teignmouth to Shaldon ferry is up for grabs if anyone's interested. I would actually love to do it but I have no idea how to operate a boat.

View attachment 450766

MSN

Two words.

Seaborne Freight.

 

[blairsh]

Only once that i recall, Wirral to Liverpool (i have a photo somewhere, possibly even posted here) as we came into liverpool there was a brief blizzard and it was like getting lashed in the face with a freezing snow whip

 

[Puddy_Tat]

One that I'd love to take but can't, and none of us will,

on the trail of ferries past, there was an isle of dogs - greenwich ferry which closed in 1892 (temporarily revived in 1940 when the greenwich pedestrian tunnel was out of action after bomb damage)

and an isle of dogs - deptford ferry, which there seems to be very little record of, but it was still on maps in post-1945

and one belvedere - dagenham, for ford workers.

 

[brogdale]

on the trail of ferries past, there was an isle of dogs - greenwich ferry which closed in 1892 (temporarily revived when the greenwich pedestrian tunnel was out of action after bomb damage)

and an isle of dogs - deptford ferry, which there seems to be very little record of, but it was still on maps in post-1945

and one belvedere - dagenham, for ford workers.

Yeah, great to imagine all of those crossings. I always enjoy the cruise from Woolwich to North Woolwich so much that I'd love to experience those others.

 

[angusmcfangus]

Kennacraig - Port Ellen
Kennacraig - Port Askaig
Dover - Calais
Dover - Zeebrugge
Newhaven - Dieppe
Kyle - Stornoway
Tarbert - Uig
Portsmouth - Cherbourg
Mallaig - Rhum - Eigg (Private charter)
Corran ferry
Ballchulish ferry
Kylerhea ferry
Mersey ferry
Jura ferry
Lochaline - Fishnish
Oban - Port Askaig

I've done one crossing that may well have been unique. It should have been Stornoway - Kyle, but due to a force 12 in the Minch (force 10 when we sailed), what should have been a 7am landing at Kyle turned into a 5pm landing at Uig on Skye. We tried to dock at Kyle, no go, we tried to dock at Mallaig, no go, we went back to Kyle, no go, finally we went to Uig, they managed to get a rope ashore and the boat was winched onto the pier. The Loch Seaforth, a bastard of a vessel that could roll and pitch at the same time.

I was hoping you would have been on the old Erskine ferry Sas.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I was hoping you would have been on the old Erskine ferry Sas.

I have. Yep, I'm sure I've forgotten some others as well.

 

[brogdale]

Anyone else remember when the old, (pre 2003), Breskens- Vlissingen ferry was a vehicle ferry? We used it a number of times for family holidays in Zeeland. From memory it used to take about 25 minutes to cross the estuary, which was just time enough to enjoy a coffee and roll in the small on-board cafe...even though we'd had chips from the chip-van on the Breskens side! On one trip we shared the car deck with a lorry full of live pigs that was very smelly.

It changed into a pedestrian/bicycle ferry when the Westerscheldetunnel that that carries highway N62 under the Western Scheldt estuary between Ellewoutsdijk and Terneuzen was opened.

 

[ouirdeaux]

I was hoping someone would remember the Harwich/Hamburg ferry. Active around 1983-4, I think, if not before or after. Maybe I dreamt it.

 

[cyberfairy]

Loved going on thois one as a kid despite it being so short a crossing- was epic to me! https://www.sealink.com.au/moggill/

 

[MrSki]

Sandbanks to Studland chain ferry View attachment 450657

Go on this a lot as a foot passenger. Only a quid & tis free on the return.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Sandbanks to Studland chain ferry

think that's the only one that there's a regular bus service on

(or do any of the scottish ones still involve the bus travelling as well?)

 

[ID47]

I was hoping someone would remember the Harwich/Hamburg ferry. Active around 1983-4, I think, if not before or after. Maybe I dreamt it.

Think it might still be active, my in laws in Hamburg used to use it years ago.

 

[brogdale]

Used this one a few years ago when we visited Bremen. It goes across the river Wesser between Farge (where the Nazi U-boat factory/museum is located) to Berne. It was a useful way to make it back to Groningen.

 

[MickiQ]

I've actually remembered one more, Greenwich to Westminster along the Thames, we viewed it as sightseeing but i think it's actually a ferry.
It was freezing cold and it was windy and rainy, it was like sailing across the North Sea rather than the Middle of London.

 

[MrSki]

Best ferry journey I have had was hitching a lift across the channel on a French freight ferry back in 1986 when I was a youngster coming home from Athens. Sure I have told the story before so won't bother typing it out all out but involved being hungry a sharing a five course meal & wine with the two other passengers who were both drivers & the chef joined us for coffee and brandy.
Thinking about it, probably the most I have ever enjoyed a meal.
Had spent the previous night trying to shelter under a picnic bench on a Flemish motorway during a heavy storm. Wet, cold, tired and starving with no-one stopping at night to have a picnic in a storm I was pretty much stranded & feeling a tad pissed off. SNIP off topic.

 

[rutabowa]

I've been dover calais about a billion times.

There was one ferry from cancun to isla mujeres that i still have nightmares about, there was a huge storm that hit just as i was carrying out 1 year old up the ladder at the back of the boat to the upstairs deck, came do close to letting go and hurling him into the ocean brrrr still get chills

 

[MrSki]

think that's the only one that there's a regular bus service on

(or do any of the scottish ones still involve the bus travelling as well?)

Yes it is but the service is disrupted because of a ferry re-fit.

 

[mx wcfc]

think that's the only one that there's a regular bus service on

(or do any of the scottish ones still involve the bus travelling as well?)

We shared the Kirkwall-Westray ferry with a bin lorry, but not a bus.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

We shared the Kirkwall-Westray ferry with a bin lorry, but not a bus.

before they buggered about with the london councils in 1965, the old woolwich borough used to send a dustcart across on the woolwich ferry on whichever days of the week to do north woolwich

 

[iona]

think that's the only one that there's a regular bus service on

(or do any of the scottish ones still involve the bus travelling as well?)

We shared the Kirkwall-Westray ferry with a bin lorry, but not a bus.

Some of the isles have their own bus type arrangement and I think some of those come over sometimes for scheduled shopping trips but the main Stagecoach routes only cover the mainland and linked (by road) isles. I think at least one of the Shetland routes drives the actual bus onto the ferry though.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

think that's the only one that there's a regular bus service on

(or do any of the scottish ones still involve the bus travelling as well?)

The 70 Plymouth to Cremyll uses the Torpoint chain ferry.