June 1959: The Carisbrooke Castle car and passenger ferry
The rapidly growing use of private motor cars required ferry operators to rethink their fleets, writes Jason Ford
This month’s visit to the archive documents the specs of a car and passenger ferry built for a company still going strong after 160 years.
Southampton-based Red Funnel currently carries 2.3m passengers and over 857,000 vehicles on its ferry route between the Port of Southampton and East Cowes, and over 1.1m passengers between Southampton and West Cowes on its 38 knots Red Jet Hi-Speed service.
Several decades previously Red Funnel’s paddle steamers operated at well under half the speed whilst traversing their routes or taking passengers on excursions, but this was to change with the advent of the private motor car a consumer desire to explore the Isle of Wight on four wheels.
Red Funnel’s Norris Castle, a converted tank carrying craft, was already employed as a car ferry but demand was outpacing supply and by June 1959 the company had welcomed the Carisbrooke Castle as it looked to modernise and increase facilities for car transport.
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