World’s Busiest Waterway : 50 Million Cross Channel Each Year on 100 Vessels

About 50 million people--daily or weekly commuters, tourists and other travelers--cross the English Channel each year on more than 100 vessels operating regularly scheduled service.

The eastern end of the channel is one of the world’s busiest waterways, with shipping lanes carefully regulated by British, French, Belgian and Netherlands authorities.

The Herald of Free Enterprise, the ferry that capsized Friday night outside the Belgian harbor of Zeebrugge, is one of 114 that carry passengers, 15 million tons of cargo and hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks every year.

4-Hour Crossing

There are drive-on-the-right rules for the cargo ships passing through the channel and designated lanes for the ferries and cargo vessels plying between the Continent and ports in Britain and Ireland.

The channel is narrowest--21 miles--between Dover, England, and Calais, France. The passage between Zeebrugge and Dover takes 4 to 4 1/2 hours.

In March, a month of little travel and lower fares, the fee for most cars is the equivalent of $31, plus $17 for each adult and $9.40 for children aged 4 to 14.

Dover, called Portus Dubris by the ancient Romans, is 65 miles southeast of London and one of the busiest ports in Europe, handling 60% of the British ferry traffic. A Roman lighthouse that guided the legions across the channel and a 900-year-old Norman castle overlook the harbor.

World War I Feat

The Flanders port of Zeebrugge, 85 miles east of Dover, was the scene of an audacious Royal Navy exploit in World War I. On April 23, 1918, a commando force directed by Rear Adm. Roger Keyes stormed the German batteries there and sank ships in the harbor, blocking the entrance for the last seven months of the war.

The ferries operate day and night, 365 days a year, between the English ports of Dover, Folkestone, Ramsgate, Newhaven, Portsmouth, Sheerness, Harwich and Felixstowe and the French ports of Calais, Dieppe, Boulogne and Le Havre; Ostend and Zeebrugge in Belgium and the Hook of Holland.

The biggest ferry operators are Sealink, Townsend-Thoresen, the Finnish-owned Sally Line and Brittany Ferries.

A 1987 brochure for Townsend-Thoresen, the biggest of the car-ferry operators and owner of the Herald of Free Enterprise, shows six sailings daily between Zeebrugge and Dover.

3 Passenger Decks

The 8,000-ton Herald of Free Enterprise, built in 1980 in Bremerhaven, West Germany, carries passengers on three decks, and cars and trucks below. The vehicles roll on and off through huge doors in bows and stern.

Typically, passengers drive their cars onto the ferries, where the vehicles are strapped down to keep them from moving in bad weather. People then go to upper decks where there are snack bars, seats and duty-free shops with goods on sale at prices lower than on shore.

In good weather, passengers can go outside on open decks. But channel crossings often are drizzly affairs, and passengers spend their time on board relaxing or shopping indoors.