Travelled on one of these as a child. Never been so seasick in my life. Everybody puked. There was a very correct stiff-upper lip British man, near me who gave me some water, and said: "chin up girl. This too will pass". Whenever I have a low moment, I still say to myself: chin up, this too will pass. 😀😀
This brings back so many memories and a heavy dose of nostalgia, my late parents and I travelled many times to France during the 1980s as we owned a property near Bordeaux. At least 6-8 car ferry return journeys during the year, principally during school holidays. Until 1989, there was no A26 motorway linking the ferry port and you had to travel through Calais town centre, 30 miles to the nearest motorway junction. We mostly used Sealink as a ferry company as it was cheaper than TT and the Hovercraft. I must have travelled on every ferry. St Anselms, St Christopher, Champs Elysees, Cote d'Azur, the Herald of Free Enterprise. I remember the Calais Car Ferry terminal very well. We used the cafeteria frequently and one of the french ladies at the till even got to recognize us. The bar was just outside, filled with truckers, near the elevator. On the ground floor, the interior was typically 80s in style. I recently checked the place and the press outlet has gone, the interior refurbished. The exterior now with modern cladding. I am surprised P&O and DFDS still have ticketing offices there when you can book online. But probably still used for customs as there was an administrative centre on the first floor. Its counterpart, the eastern docks travel centre in Dover, built in the mid-70s, was demolished in 2014....
Went on a boys night out to Zeebrugge back in 82. Not only missed the ferry back but lost my passport too. Managed to bribe a crew member to smuggle me aboard the next ferry out. When we got to Dover the immigration got hold of me and called my mum to confirm I was who I said I was. They then sent me on my way with a warning to be a good lad in the future. Probably be in jail if it happened today!
@@paulyflyer8154 Yes I understand the way things are at there at the moment. Been watching Nigel Farage from Oz. Anyway fun times back then but I was more fearful of mum than the immigration!
I remember the ferry The Herald of Free Enterprise disaster on 6March 1987 in Zeebrugge when nearly 200 passengers and crew died when the ship capsized after leaving the port. A terrible tragedy that should never have happened
It only happened because unbelievably it left Zeebrugge with its bow doors still open. No one actually bothered to check that they were properly closed.....causing water to flood into the car decks.......and ultimately turn the ferry on its side. It remains the worst ferry disaster to have happened in the Channel. Townsend Thoresen never recovered and went bust later that year. I think it shook alot of people, and ferry traffic took a while to recover. Of course Eurotunnel/Eurostar eventually killed off the ferries. Some services still exist, but they are very limited now. I remember going on the Herald of Free Enterprise as a kid with my family several months before the disaster.
@@robtyman4281 I think it was standard practise back then to leave with the bow doors open to save time. They could set off in calm waters and then close them en route... There are still many channel crossings, especially from Harwich & Portsmouth; lorry drivers often need an overnight sleep, so can do it on the ferry. I don't know what the ferry services are like to/from Calais.
I'm sure that I travelled on Townsend Thoresen in November 1987, left from Zeebrugge, all I could think about was the Herald of Free Enterprise. When I was in the Netherlands, I bought a copy of "Spycatcher", which was banned in the UK at the time. At customs they asked me whether I had anything to declare, and the customs officer eyeballed me, when he asked this. I shrugged my shoulders and mumbled, and he let me go. It wouldn't happen today.
Tony ‘take no prisoners’ Bastable strikes again! His car reviews would put the fear of God in any manufacturer’s spokesperson, i don’t doubt for a second!
The TT trio of new ferries were very fine ships..... don't get me wrong, I loved Sealink's Belfast-built St Anselm & St Christopher to bits.... I believe as of June 2020 they are both still in existence, but I don't know of their operations or indeed their condition!!! The ship featured in this video.... Spirit of Free Enterprise, or "SOFE"... was stretched by 33m in 1992 to bring her capacity up nearer to the level of the later generation ferries. I travelled on her a few times as Pride of Kent, and later as P&OSL Kent... she was still a great old ship and I preferred her to the newer ferries 👍👍👍👍
I used to make very regular crossings on Herald of free Enterprise to Zeebrugge and back during the 80s crossing 4-6 times a month on the overnighter with my truck. I shudder when i think about it now. I was aware that roro (roll on, roll off) ferry's like the Herald were flat bottomed rather than having a V shaped hull like a ship has but didn't ever give it a thought that because of the flat bottomed design they were/still are inherently dangerous. The Herald sank because she left port with her bow doors open. The kid left in charge of doing the job was tired if my memory serves me and it was overlooked. Apparently, the captain pressed a button on the bridge that lit a light on the car deck signaling that it was time to close the doors. Somehow the doors were overlooked both by the captain and the kid and because of the sea state that night the bow acted like a scoop taking more more water into its lower decks until she couldn't keep upright by the force of the scooped up water sloshing side to side. Even though i was luckily not on board that night i still get a shiver and have occasional nightmares about it. It was just to close to home for my liking.
If I remember rightly after the terrible 1987 sinking of the boat then the name Townsend Thoresen was abandoned in favour of P and O instead. It joined then also the names Sealink, and France Ferries in doing the cross channel routes later on if I remember rightly so then too.
I'm wondering if that's the band Squeeze sitting at a table in the Calais ferry terminal bar at 10:14, with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland facing the camera. Can't see the other faces, but looks like they are talking to some others over at the bar, who might be part of the same entourage. Apparently they had a few gigs in the Netherlands and France in March 1980.
Beau Sexon A mate in my class stole a miniature penguin from a zoo in Lille. They only discovered it at the port in Calais when his duffle bag started squawking.
@@stan1050 Haha French bangers. I used to bring loads of them back with me every time I went to France. The red packets with the tiger on the front. The biggest ones were like sticks of dynamite.
All 3 of these ships (Spirit, Herald, Pride of Free Enterprise) and their replacements, the Pride of Dover and the Pride of Calais, are now broken up, whereas Sealink's Sts Anselm and Christoper of similar vintage are still running elsewhere in 2020 for new owners. Does anyone have a copy of the 1970's Sealink advert with the song "We'll Show You the Way"?
ExpressAphrodite The Townsend ships were far superior! There are many, many reasons they were withdrawn sooner........None of these reasons are because they were inferior ships. I have manned both company tonnage.....Townsend ships were far better build for a variety of reasons.
I remember traveling from Harwich to the “Continent “ on my way up to Norway several times in 1981. How on earth did I manage to organize this without the web ? ... oh, now I remember; travel agents. The age before budget flights, when ferries, trains and busses were cheaper than air travel. Aaah, those were the days. Can’t afford international travel by train today ...
Pam’s quote about lack of deck space wasn’t quite true. TT’s ‘Spirit’ class vessels had ample promenade decks along both sides at vehicle deck level. Only problem was, you had to go DOWN several flights of stairs to access them, which few passengers ever did.
@Bercilak de hautdesert .. Ha, yes. It's all relative I suppose. Petrol cost 28p a litre a pint of beer was 35p. I was 14 in 1980 and remember getting a fiver (£5) off an uncle. I got the bus into Liverpool, bought a Deep Purple LP, had a hamburger, chips and Coke, bus back home and still had money left. Lol...felt rich!
These ferries were absurdly expensive back then - and the vid also explains why: the ferry operators ran a comfy cartel at their customers' expense. That never should have been legal in the first place. Nowadays, flights are so cheap that in many cases it's cheaper just to leave the car at home, fly over and rent a car at your destination airport... and you've got the steering wheel on the same Side as everyone else....
@@notroll1279 ..lol, yes. I regularly fly and rent a car in Europe although that was not really an option in 1980...well it was but just damn expensive. Agree that it was pretty much a cartel back in those days. They also had the Duty Free sewn up nicely too!
My dad, brother, and I did a Calais to Dover one time in the 80s. We took a hydrofoil. I don’t remember much about the name of the ship. It was fun, but I was mildly disappointed because I really really wanted to do the hovercraft. Sadly, I never got that chance, but I like seeing all the YT videos about that amazing ship.
The glorious days of informative documentaries on the ITV network, of which Thames was one of the main providers. Pam Rhodes looks remarkably youthful and speaks with perfect received pronunciation. A rare quality these days. The three 'Spirit Class' Townsend Thoresen ships are all but a memory now. The Herald of Free Enterprise will of course be remembered for the most tragic reasons. Sealink's 'Saints' live on, a testament to their flexible design. But neither ferry company is in existence anymore. The world has certainly changed an awful lot in forty years and not necessarily for the better, sadly.
@@bigupyourself Yes indeed. But the P&O Ferries of today is a shadow of its former self. When TT became P&O European Ferries in 1987 it was still the market leader at Dover and it still had routes out of Portsmouth. Neither is the case now.
@@georgeholland2934 now it operates 'fire and rehire' policies but without the second part. Claims it needs to discard experienced British seamen like garbage in order to remain profitable yet the parent company is raking it in.
@@colinwhyte1526 They were small when compaired to Sealink which was a British Rail subsiduary and P&O which also ran cruise liners and only rapidly increased in size with the purchase of P&O ferries out of Dover to Boloulogne and Southampton to LeHarve.
@@wombat1238marsupial Yes I remember....... Townsend chairman died before the take over...... He would never have purchased P&o ferries. This diluted the Townsend Thoresen brand. Unfortunately after his sudden death the company was managed by people with university degrees..... They did not know what they were doing...... And a few months later.... So sad really.
Liam Doyle I remember booking a ferry once through a travel agent, of course we just book direct on line these days and being given vouchers to use in the duty free shop.
Early 80's they did a 5 day ticket, car and 4 and sometimes l would do Oostende or Zebrugge and the price was 29 quid. This is interesting to watch thinking it was 'yesterday' but in fact almost 40 years ago.
5:38 how was this man as a juvenile ? It is simply impossible to tell. This is the way I remember “Adults”, staid, humorless, cold and unapproachable. I shall be sixty next week, and, blimey, I ain’t like that geezer. 🥳
@@donovanwray5974 Well, we are all going to be on that ferry ride into eternity, one day. It's as good a time as any, to check in with our Heavenly Travel Agent Bookings are essential 🙂.
So did I too there really. But of course they mean the area called Bergerac which is in south-western France as far as I know too; rather than the later BBC1 tv series of the same name, which ran from 1981 to 1991 so too though.
In the 90’s I lived in France and you could get a day return for just £1. I would buy the ticket and then just not return. Bargain. Eventually they caught onto it and used to debit the full return rate from your card details.
7:38 That fuel price rise was due to the oil price doubling as a result of events in the Middle East; first the Islamic Revolution in Iran that replaced the pro-Western Shah with the distinctly less pro-Western Ayatollah and then the Iran-Iraq War that severely damaged production in both countries.
@@rich_edwards79 They mention at the beginning that the Herald had not yet come into service so, viewers should be aware that the boat featured is not the Herald. Possibly not everyone watching this is aware of the later disaster.
1980. The world was simpler, neighbours spoke to one another, friends arranged to meet up and made sure to do so, political opponents had resepct for one another, nobody got depressed due to facebook life-lies and if you left your phone at home, that was okay because so did everyone else.
@@romac9516 Maybe you didnt 'look' gay. What I'm saying is people were a lot less accepting. If you stood out as an individual in the wrong part of town it was a risk. Maybe in the centre of London you were pretty safe. I'd say you were one of the lucky ones -- an exception -- if you were openly gay in the 80s and had no trouble. People look back at the old times with rose tinted glasses. When I started secondary school British National Party hooligans would often come to our school at the end of the day to beat up any black boys they found. Surely you can accept we've come a long way since those times.
@@annother3350 I don't accept your assumptions about my experiences or thought processes, no. We have indeed come a long way, away from identifying as human beings, and into the dystopia of identity politics where groups, not individuals are the new political entity - and I happen to think it's incredibly destructive, divisive and drives a wedge between people rather than encouraging all to look past sexuality, and skin colour and recognise humanity as the common unifying trait we all share.
Persil Automatic did an offer where you sent in the vouchers on the box to get 2 return ferry tickets, Plus reduced onward train travel to Paris, for £30. £15 each! 6 of us went to the France v England game at Parc de Princes. Mother didn't run short of washing powder for months.
@@andrewrcmadwilkinson6999 I'm sure he will intervene if things get too bad. He doesn't want to 'nanny' us and be a control freak. He gave us free will and tries not to intervene. Remember Corona virus is a scam - it was invented by humans
@@annother3350 YOU ARE INSANE. IF YOUR CHILD IS BEING ATTACKED BY A DOG AND YOU HAVE A GUN WHAT DO YOU DO WAIT. FREE WILL WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR CHILD A CHOICE AT BREAKFAST BETWEEN FRUIT JUICE AND BLEACH! ERR NO AS YOU LOVE YOUR CHILD AND SO IF GOD LOVES US HE WOULD NOT GIVE US A CHOICE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL HE GAVE US THAT CHOICE SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE WAY HE VALUES US!
There's still a ferry service between Newhaven and Dieppe. I went on the high-speed catamaran to Dieppe years ago. If the sea is calm it only takes an hour. The day I went the sea was extremely choppy. The catamaran was thrown all over the place. Most of the passengers got sea sick and to watch them bolt for the toilet to throw up was highly amusing. A friend of mine told me he was chased around a Dover to Calais ferry once by a Frenchman after he made a derogatory remark about France. I burst out laughing when he told me. He wasn't impressed. 😁
Wow Alan Partridge is real! What a knob standing there with his hands in his pockets and pointy elbows sticking out. 🤣 Then there’s the man pretending to be working until the Alan Partridge guy rocks up and just starts interviewing him! 🤣😆😂
@@pit_stop77 God, you're naive, aren't you? Globalists run Britain, and control all of the mainstream parties, irrespective of their labels. You've allowed your pathetic tribalism to obscure the point of the OP (who made no reference to party politics), which is that 40 years ago England had a far stronger identity. I am 61, and know this to be true; how old are you?
PS. England was never France. Despite only being taught about the Romans, the Tudors and the Nazis (with a bit about Empire Windrush thrown in) you obviously retain a vague, residual semi-awareness that England was successfully invaded and conquered by the Normans in 1066. In point of fact, large parts of France were part of the English Crown, but never vice versa. You are in no position to judge other people to be idiots.
@@Khayyam-vg9fw 🤣 you are definitely an idiot. WTF where the Normans then dumbass. You obviously are one of those people who believe in British Exceptionalism. Oh we were invaded by the French but that meant they became British mewahaha. You've zero understanding of what actually happened to the Anglo Saxons. However, you're older than me so school yard logic. You are completely right. You fool. Furthermore the subsequent claim of the English and French crowns was much further down the historical line than 1066. By further I mean several hundred years. Anyone who knows anything would agree England is Danish or maybe French or er was it Dutch. No wait German.
Travelled on one of these as a child. Never been so seasick in my life. Everybody puked. There was a very correct stiff-upper lip British man, near me who gave me some water, and said: "chin up girl. This too will pass". Whenever I have a low moment, I still say to myself: chin up, this too will pass. 😀😀
This brings back so many memories and a heavy dose of nostalgia, my late parents and I travelled many times to France during the 1980s as we owned a property near Bordeaux. At least 6-8 car ferry return journeys during the year, principally during school holidays. Until 1989, there was no A26 motorway linking the ferry port and you had to travel through Calais town centre, 30 miles to the nearest motorway junction. We mostly used Sealink as a ferry company as it was cheaper than TT and the Hovercraft. I must have travelled on every ferry. St Anselms, St Christopher, Champs Elysees, Cote d'Azur, the Herald of Free Enterprise. I remember the Calais Car Ferry terminal very well. We used the cafeteria frequently and one of the french ladies at the till even got to recognize us. The bar was just outside, filled with truckers, near the elevator. On the ground floor, the interior was typically 80s in style. I recently checked the place and the press outlet has gone, the interior refurbished. The exterior now with modern cladding. I am surprised P&O and DFDS still have ticketing offices there when you can book online. But probably still used for customs as there was an administrative centre on the first floor. Its counterpart, the eastern docks travel centre in Dover, built in the mid-70s, was demolished in 2014....
Went on a boys night out to Zeebrugge back in 82. Not only missed the ferry back but lost my passport too. Managed to bribe a crew member to smuggle me aboard the next ferry out. When we got to Dover the immigration got hold of me and called my mum to confirm I was who I said I was. They then sent me on my way with a warning to be a good lad in the future. Probably be in jail if it happened today!
No ...if it happened today you'd get £1500 per month and a free house. You should have waited there for 38 years then come back.
@@paulyflyer8154 Yes I understand the way things are at there at the moment. Been watching Nigel Farage from Oz. Anyway fun times back then but I was more fearful of mum than the immigration!
@@Alfredromeothatsme 😂🤣
Alfred Romeo Did they or you lose your passport?
@@Pauldjreadman me....had a couple too many haha!
I am a 77 year Old School lorry driver.. Used all ferries for years. Still love them. No Tunnel for me Thanks.... Douglas Vick.
I remember the ferry The Herald of Free Enterprise disaster on 6March 1987 in Zeebrugge when nearly 200 passengers and crew died when the ship capsized after leaving the port. A terrible tragedy that should never have happened
Watch this. th-cam.com/video/nVxWhQVUaoI/w-d-xo.html
Sad moment
I shuddered when I saw the red ferry. All those news reports of its sister ship on its side were awful. Terrible tragedy.
It only happened because unbelievably it left Zeebrugge with its bow doors still open. No one actually bothered to check that they were properly closed.....causing water to flood into the car decks.......and ultimately turn the ferry on its side.
It remains the worst ferry disaster to have happened in the Channel. Townsend Thoresen never recovered and went bust later that year. I think it shook alot of people, and ferry traffic took a while to recover. Of course Eurotunnel/Eurostar eventually killed off the ferries. Some services still exist, but they are very limited now.
I remember going on the Herald of Free Enterprise as a kid with my family several months before the disaster.
@@robtyman4281
I think it was standard practise back then to leave with the bow doors open to save time. They could set off in calm waters and then close them en route...
There are still many channel crossings, especially from Harwich & Portsmouth; lorry drivers often need an overnight sleep, so can do it on the ferry.
I don't know what the ferry services are like to/from Calais.
I'm sure that I travelled on Townsend Thoresen in November 1987, left from Zeebrugge, all I could think about was the Herald of Free Enterprise. When I was in the Netherlands, I bought a copy of "Spycatcher", which was banned in the UK at the time. At customs they asked me whether I had anything to declare, and the customs officer eyeballed me, when he asked this. I shrugged my shoulders and mumbled, and he let me go. It wouldn't happen today.
That's a cracking jumper. My mum used to knit me jumpers not entirely unlike that in those days. I was 5 then.
I think that jumper could be in fashion again.
@@martinbitter4162 excellent! 😃
Love Brittany Ferries! A much nicer start to a vacation than the airport experience!
Tony ‘take no prisoners’ Bastable strikes again! His car reviews would put the fear of God in any manufacturer’s spokesperson, i don’t doubt for a second!
Flawless delivery, I bet he never had to do a second take.
The TT trio of new ferries were very fine ships..... don't get me wrong, I loved Sealink's Belfast-built St Anselm & St Christopher to bits.... I believe as of June 2020 they are both still in existence, but I don't know of their operations or indeed their condition!!!
The ship featured in this video.... Spirit of Free Enterprise, or "SOFE"... was stretched by 33m in 1992 to bring her capacity up nearer to the level of the later generation ferries.
I travelled on her a few times as Pride of Kent, and later as P&OSL Kent... she was still a great old ship and I preferred her to the newer ferries 👍👍👍👍
I used to make very regular crossings on Herald of free Enterprise to Zeebrugge and back during the 80s crossing 4-6 times a month on the overnighter with my truck. I shudder when i think about it now. I was aware that roro (roll on, roll off) ferry's like the Herald were flat bottomed rather than having a V shaped hull like a ship has but didn't ever give it a thought that because of the flat bottomed design they were/still are inherently dangerous. The Herald sank because she left port with her bow doors open. The kid left in charge of doing the job was tired if my memory serves me and it was overlooked. Apparently, the captain pressed a button on the bridge that lit a light on the car deck signaling that it was time to close the doors. Somehow the doors were overlooked both by the captain and the kid and because of the sea state that night the bow acted like a scoop taking more more water into its lower decks until she couldn't keep upright by the force of the scooped up water sloshing side to side. Even though i was luckily not on board that night i still get a shiver and have occasional nightmares about it. It was just to close to home for my liking.
I can't see how the hull shape makes any difference, if water ingress occurs instability follows.
If I remember rightly after the terrible 1987 sinking of the boat then the name Townsend Thoresen was abandoned in favour of P and O instead. It joined then also the names Sealink, and France Ferries in doing the cross channel routes later on if I remember rightly so then too.
I’m Tony Bastable and this is where my hands are going to go.
Among '96/'97 I took 4 times that ferry during travelling from Milan to London and viceversa by bus.. I miss so much those years
Nice shiny Calais modern terminal..I'm sure they never envisaged it becoming just a magnet for migrant crossings and a huge refugee camp
So sad what's happening today isn't it?
@@damiencrowley5546 No Schengen then.
I'm wondering if that's the band Squeeze sitting at a table in the Calais ferry terminal bar at 10:14, with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland facing the camera. Can't see the other faces, but looks like they are talking to some others over at the bar, who might be part of the same entourage. Apparently they had a few gigs in the Netherlands and France in March 1980.
Wow Tony Bastaple is rocking that blazer
I love that, the ferry company makes £2.50p on a bottle of spirits at duty free, shows you what we had to pay at duty paid prices
That's why you should never buy cigarettes or alcohol on ferrys it's so expensive a right RIP off
Reminds me of French trips at school
trying to smuggle those powerful little red French 'bangers' back inside a hollowed out baguette..
Beau Sexon A mate in my class stole a miniature penguin from a zoo in Lille. They only discovered it at the port in Calais when his duffle bag started squawking.
Stan 10 and flick knives for 10 francs
@@stan1050 Haha French bangers. I used to bring loads of them back with me every time I went to France. The red packets with the tiger on the front. The biggest ones were like sticks of dynamite.
@@woodyeckerslyke9676 I laughed out loud when I read that.
All 3 of these ships (Spirit, Herald, Pride of Free Enterprise) and their replacements, the Pride of Dover and the Pride of Calais, are now broken up, whereas Sealink's Sts Anselm and Christoper of similar vintage are still running elsewhere in 2020 for new owners. Does anyone have a copy of the 1970's Sealink advert with the song "We'll Show You the Way"?
ExpressAphrodite
The Townsend ships were far superior!
There are many, many reasons they were withdrawn sooner........None of these reasons are because they were inferior ships.
I have manned both company tonnage.....Townsend ships were far better build for a variety of reasons.
My first trip across the Channel was Folkstone to Ostend, 1966, in a friends Triumph Herald. On a ferry not a triumph Herald.
IIRC there was an amphibious Herald available, could be a fun day out trying to cross the Channel in one 😀
Ooh, how times have changed...😏
For the worse ☹️
@@-DC- The tunnel is expensive but very quick.
Definitely for the worse
I remember traveling from Harwich to the “Continent “ on my way up to Norway several times in 1981. How on earth did I manage to organize this without the web ?
... oh, now I remember; travel agents.
The age before budget flights, when ferries, trains and busses were cheaper than air travel.
Aaah, those were the days. Can’t afford international travel by train today ...
Yellow pages. But how did you pay?
You can. Look at The Man in Seat 61 for advice on how to do it.
Banglish123 Hard cash. Bank notes handed over. One got a receipt, often hand-written.
Pam’s quote about lack of deck space wasn’t quite true. TT’s ‘Spirit’ class vessels had ample promenade decks along both sides at vehicle deck level. Only problem was, you had to go DOWN several flights of stairs to access them, which few passengers ever did.
It seems like the real conspiracy is that they made the outside decks awkward to get to!
Just for a little perspective...£100 in 1980 is equivalent to £432 in today's money (using Bank Of England inflation calculator)
@Bercilak de hautdesert .. Ha, yes. It's all relative I suppose. Petrol cost 28p a litre a pint of beer was 35p. I was 14 in 1980 and remember getting a fiver (£5) off an uncle. I got the bus into Liverpool, bought a Deep Purple LP, had a hamburger, chips and Coke, bus back home and still had money left. Lol...felt rich!
These ferries were absurdly expensive back then - and the vid also explains why: the ferry operators ran a comfy cartel at their customers' expense. That never should have been legal in the first place.
Nowadays, flights are so cheap that in many cases it's cheaper just to leave the car at home, fly over and rent a car at your destination airport... and you've got the steering wheel on the same Side as everyone else....
@@notroll1279 ..lol, yes. I regularly fly and rent a car in Europe although that was not really an option in 1980...well it was but just damn expensive. Agree that it was pretty much a cartel back in those days. They also had the Duty Free sewn up nicely too!
My dad, brother, and I did a Calais to Dover one time in the 80s. We took a hydrofoil. I don’t remember much about the name of the ship. It was fun, but I was mildly disappointed because I really really wanted to do the hovercraft. Sadly, I never got that chance, but I like seeing all the YT videos about that amazing ship.
What happened if you didn't have a Wife and a Ford Cortina ? All those men with Girlfriends and Ford Escort's, left at the Ferry terminal 😂
You ferry... you company man!
Programme proudly sponsored by Ford😁😁😁
Take Pam.
Best occasion to get rid of both of them.
Or God forbid, a Vauxhall Cavalier!
The glorious days of informative documentaries on the ITV network, of which Thames was one of the main providers. Pam Rhodes looks remarkably youthful and speaks with perfect received pronunciation. A rare quality these days. The three 'Spirit Class' Townsend Thoresen ships are all but a memory now. The Herald of Free Enterprise will of course be remembered for the most tragic reasons. Sealink's 'Saints' live on, a testament to their flexible design. But neither ferry company is in existence anymore. The world has certainly changed an awful lot in forty years and not necessarily for the better, sadly.
Unfortunately Townsend was and is P&O 😔
@@bigupyourself Yes indeed. But the P&O Ferries of today is a shadow of its former self. When TT became P&O European Ferries in 1987 it was still the market leader at Dover and it still had routes out of Portsmouth. Neither is the case now.
@@georgeholland2934 now it operates 'fire and rehire' policies but without the second part. Claims it needs to discard experienced British seamen like garbage in order to remain profitable yet the parent company is raking it in.
Ah the lovely Pam❤💘💝
Townsend Thoresen reminded me of Laker Airways of that time, trying to break the monopoly of the big carriers
I remember seeing all the Laker planes grounded when we took off for a holiday when I was kid.
Breaking the monopoly? TT were one of the biggest operators.
@@colinwhyte1526 They were small when compaired to Sealink which was a British Rail subsiduary and P&O which also ran cruise liners and only rapidly increased in size with the purchase of P&O ferries out of Dover to Boloulogne and Southampton to LeHarve.
@@wombat1238marsupial Yes I remember....... Townsend chairman died before the take over...... He would never have purchased P&o ferries.
This diluted the Townsend Thoresen brand.
Unfortunately after his sudden death the company was managed by people with university degrees..... They did not know what they were doing...... And a few months later.... So sad really.
6:13 I thought Bergerac was in Jersey?
Lovely.
If someone wanted to bring 17illegal migrants in the back of a Transit Van would it be cheaper from le havre or calais ? (Asking for a friend)
Given the current Covid19 situation, this would be a health hazard. To the migrants...
It wouldn't be cheap at the minute ...the fares are through the roof
I went on a day trip to Calais with three friends and the car. The cost was £25 return and they also gave me 6 bottles of wine.
Liam Doyle I remember booking a ferry once through a travel agent, of course we just book direct on line these days and being given vouchers to use in the duty free shop.
0:41 The woman carrying the drinks is thinking " If the captain rocks this ship right now im gonna b not at all happy ". 🤣
0:44 Christopher Lee getting his lunch
Early 80's they did a 5 day ticket, car and 4 and sometimes l would do Oostende or Zebrugge and the price was 29 quid. This is interesting to watch thinking it was 'yesterday' but in fact almost 40 years ago.
Very enlightened
“Book you, the wife and the cortina”! He buckets the wife and the cortina as objects in the same sentence !
😛
Both as unreliable.
CRS1964 brilliant 😂
@@replay68pete14 🤣😂
......and your point is? 😉
40 years later and it’s cheaper to put a car on the Eurostar. I went before the disease and it was £88 for the article and two adults.
Ominous mention of the future launch of the Herald of Free Enterprise near the start of this clip.
Fancy going to sea with the doors open. I mean isn't keeping the water on the outside job #1 for a mariner?
Sorry Stan, still don't understand that simple table. Please explain it in even more detail for me thanks.
5:38 how was this man as a juvenile ? It is simply impossible to tell. This is the way I remember “Adults”, staid, humorless, cold and unapproachable.
I shall be sixty next week, and, blimey, I ain’t like that geezer. 🥳
I thought that I knew that face from somewhere.. Pam from Songs of Praise. She has hardly changed in nearly forty years.
Some people age well.
🤔
I still would.
I used to lust after her and Sally Magnussen when they presented _Songs of Praise_. I hope Hell doesn't exist.
@@donovanwray5974 Well, we are all going to be on that ferry ride into eternity, one day.
It's as good a time as any, to check in with our Heavenly Travel Agent
Bookings are essential 🙂.
Magnusson was a newscaster when I was a teenager. She almost made me go blind.
In 1987 this ship hit ice in the channel and sank with the loss of 198 lives.
I remember the herald of free enterprise. Sad tragedy 😥
Do you have the full episode
I thought for a minute the old man was a fan of Bergerac
So did I too there really. But of course they mean the area called Bergerac which is in south-western France as far as I know too; rather than the later BBC1 tv series of the same name, which ran from 1981 to 1991 so too though.
In the 90’s I lived in France and you could get a day return for just £1. I would buy the ticket and then just not return. Bargain. Eventually they caught onto it and used to debit the full return rate from your card details.
I got a couple of £1 returns via a coupons in The Sun newspaper.
They deducted the full price if you didn't return?! Is that even legal?!
Ann Other : I guess it must have been. It’s always in the small print. I tried to pay in cash but they would only accept cards. That was why.
The directors of Towsend Thorsen should have all been jailed for manslaughter
7:38 That fuel price rise was due to the oil price doubling as a result of events in the Middle East; first the Islamic Revolution in Iran that replaced the pro-Western Shah with the distinctly less pro-Western Ayatollah and then the Iran-Iraq War that severely damaged production in both countries.
It looks to me poor Stan could do with a laptop instead of the all that paperwork!
It was a few years before the Grid Compass was released, the first laptop.
What happened to the upper of Pam Rhodes' upper lip?
oh dear, the Herald Of Free Enterprise :(
That's her sister the spirit of free enterprise later pride of kent
It seems at that time the Cortina was the only car around.
So the programme was called "WHEELS", but it was focused on a cruise liner ? Ooookk then...
The AA guy sounds like Allan wicker .
"It depends as to actually what, if you see what I mean, as an example .... " his mouth is talking but his brain's gone to the pub.
In March of 1987 193 passengers and crew were killed on on of these ships from this company.
Fun fact: Stan was 40 years old at the time of filming.
That Thames opening always reminds me of Benny Hill
Or "The Sweeney"!
The Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in 1987. Almost 200 crew and passengers died. A terrible catastrophe.
Yes we know, but this video shows her sister ship, the Spirit of Free Enterprise. (Later stretched to become P&O's Pride of Kent.)
@@rich_edwards79 They mention at the beginning that the Herald had not yet come into service so, viewers should be aware that the boat featured is not the Herald. Possibly not everyone watching this is aware of the later disaster.
The Herald of Tree Enterprise? If only they knew what was coming down the line. RIP
Ah Pam Rhodes. Whatever happened to her?
Very interesting
Don't leave port with the front bay doors open 😐
Was this was the ship that sank with much loss of life just a few years later.
Nah, it mentions early on the The Herald of Free Enterprise was entering service in November. I'd imagine it would be almost identical though.
It was her sister ship the Spirit of Free Enterprise.
1980. The world was simpler, neighbours spoke to one another, friends arranged to meet up and made sure to do so, political opponents had resepct for one another, nobody got depressed due to facebook life-lies and if you left your phone at home, that was okay because so did everyone else.
Yeh, the 80s. A time when men would get beaten up for wearing a pink shirt because it was deemed 'gay'
@@annother3350 I'm gay, and in the 1980s people really didn't care and I was never beaten up. How old were you in the 1980s?
@@romac9516 Maybe you didnt 'look' gay. What I'm saying is people were a lot less accepting. If you stood out as an individual in the wrong part of town it was a risk. Maybe in the centre of London you were pretty safe. I'd say you were one of the lucky ones -- an exception -- if you were openly gay in the 80s and had no trouble.
People look back at the old times with rose tinted glasses. When I started secondary school British National Party hooligans would often come to our school at the end of the day to beat up any black boys they found.
Surely you can accept we've come a long way since those times.
@@annother3350 I don't accept your assumptions about my experiences or thought processes, no. We have indeed come a long way, away from identifying as human beings, and into the dystopia of identity politics where groups, not individuals are the new political entity - and I happen to think it's incredibly destructive, divisive and drives a wedge between people rather than encouraging all to look past sexuality, and skin colour and recognise humanity as the common unifying trait we all share.
@@romac9516 What assumptions did I make about your experiences and thought processes?! Are you high? You're not making sense.
I cringed a bit when i saw the bit where they were boasting about the size of the car deck on the TT ferry.
Look 👀 at 2.00 mins in Captain Manwaring from Dads Army buying his spirits 😂
NOT BUYING THEM FROM JOE WALKER THEN NAPOLEON' STUPID BOY
£130 return now it's about £160 but just remember what you could buy or the wages back in 1980. Petrol about £1.50 gallon now £5.04 a gallon.
Wow, those fares - £100 in 1980 is over £400 today...
Someone in this video rang up £74.50 in spirits!
I was just thinking how expensive ferry journeying was back then.
Persil Automatic did an offer where you sent in the vouchers on the box to get 2 return ferry tickets, Plus reduced onward train travel to Paris, for £30. £15 each! 6 of us went to the France v England game at Parc de Princes. Mother didn't run short of washing powder for months.
She mentioned the Herald of Free Enterprise! 😱😱😱
God the herald of free of Enterprise and we all know what happened to that some years later
Pam is hot
Ron McCullock I want to do an overnight "crossing" with her.
@@pmays4 hmmmmm nice dream
Bush was generally not shaven in those days. Just saying.
now runs a cattery in Biggleswade apparently
@@pmays4 naughty
Answers to questions would be a lot quicker if you didn’t ask dear old Stan. Bless ‘im for he speaks with comma’s and parentheses.
Maybe it's cheaper now
The patron saint of Llandudno.
No Churches mentioned in this video so we're allowed to comment on this one.
OH YES, SONGS OF PRAISE NOW LET US PRAISE GOD FOR CORONAVIRUS AND OTHER DISEASES REMEMBER BOYS AND GIRLS HE LOVES US?
Andrew - the devil does the bad shit you dick
@@annother3350 THEN WHY DOES GOD NOT STOP HIM IDIOT IF HE LOVES US
@@andrewrcmadwilkinson6999 I'm sure he will intervene if things get too bad. He doesn't want to 'nanny' us and be a control freak. He gave us free will and tries not to intervene. Remember Corona virus is a scam - it was invented by humans
@@annother3350 YOU ARE INSANE.
IF YOUR CHILD IS BEING ATTACKED BY A DOG AND YOU HAVE A GUN WHAT DO YOU DO WAIT.
FREE WILL WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR CHILD A CHOICE AT BREAKFAST BETWEEN FRUIT JUICE AND BLEACH!
ERR NO AS YOU LOVE YOUR CHILD AND SO IF GOD LOVES US HE WOULD NOT GIVE US A CHOICE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL HE GAVE US THAT CHOICE SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE WAY HE VALUES US!
Proper Londoners/cockneys/insert here....
Comments have been very civilised so far 😲
There's still a ferry service between Newhaven and Dieppe. I went on the high-speed catamaran to Dieppe years ago. If the sea is calm it only takes an hour. The day I went the sea was extremely choppy. The catamaran was thrown all over the place. Most of the passengers got sea sick and to watch them bolt for the toilet to throw up was highly amusing. A friend of mine told me he was chased around a Dover to Calais ferry once by a Frenchman after he made a derogatory remark about France. I burst out laughing when he told me. He wasn't impressed. 😁
At 2.02, Captain Mainwaring stocking up with gin!
The Herald Of Free Enterprice ... remember the accident in the 80's
Somebody thew mud all over that poor girl's sweater.
I had a crush on her
Uccch, Dover to Calais in 1985 and felt sick as a dog. Never again 🤮🤮🤢
I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone!
I'm guessing many people in the video here have died..
why I'm i watching this late midnight
fares arn't that much more expensive today
Just remember to close the bow doors chaps 😬
Wow Alan Partridge is real! What a knob standing there with his hands in his pockets and pointy elbows sticking out. 🤣 Then there’s the man pretending to be working until the Alan Partridge guy rocks up and just starts interviewing him! 🤣😆😂
This was when England was England 🏴
England is still England. It's still run by tory muppets
@@pit_stop77 God, you're naive, aren't you? Globalists run Britain, and control all of the mainstream parties, irrespective of their labels. You've allowed your pathetic tribalism to obscure the point of the OP (who made no reference to party politics), which is that 40 years ago England had a far stronger identity. I am 61, and know this to be true; how old are you?
@@Khayyam-vg9fw I am 1061years old, therefore I remember when England was France. You Sir are an idiot!
PS. England was never France. Despite only being taught about the Romans, the Tudors and the Nazis (with a bit about Empire Windrush thrown in) you obviously retain a vague, residual semi-awareness that England was successfully invaded and conquered by the Normans in 1066. In point of fact, large parts of France were part of the English Crown, but never vice versa.
You are in no position to judge other people to be idiots.
@@Khayyam-vg9fw 🤣 you are definitely an idiot. WTF where the Normans then dumbass. You obviously are one of those people who believe in British Exceptionalism. Oh we were invaded by the French but that meant they became British mewahaha. You've zero understanding of what actually happened to the Anglo Saxons. However, you're older than me so school yard logic. You are completely right. You fool.
Furthermore the subsequent claim of the English and French crowns was much further down the historical line than 1066. By further I mean several hundred years. Anyone who knows anything would agree England is Danish or maybe French or er was it Dutch. No wait German.
Herald of free enterprise? Omg, tragic avoidable accident by incompetent lazy practices, poor people...
Nice innocent looking female presenter, ripe for corruption 😉
It's the innocent looking ones that have the whips and handcuffs collection.
Who an earth told that presenter to wear that God-Awful hand-knitted jumper .... she was probably in her 20’s and looked so frumpy!!!!!
I've got news for you if you were born in the 80s...
Yes, but she was still worth one.
She was in her 20s and you think people told her how to dress?!
Ingiemummalove Welcome to the 1980s!
Gorgeous
Modern fashion is so drab compared to 1980's fashion.
WTF is Pam wearing?! 🤣
Don’t forget to shut your bow doirs
Absolutely. Don't want any opportunist sausage jockeys milking the situation :-)
Biggaa
Boozers!