The hovercraft was invented
by British engineer Christopher Cockerell (later Sir
Christopher). He produced his first working model in
1956 and three years later his first full size test
craft was produced by Saunders Roe. On 25 July 1959
the, Cockerell designed, Saunders Roe Nautical One (SRN1),
successfully completed the first cross Channel hovercraft
crossing from Calais to Dover, exactly fifty years after
Bleriot’s first Channel
flight.
The first regular passenger service from Dover started
on 1 August 1968 when the Dover to Boulogne service
was inaugurated by the SRN4 hovercraft “Princess Margaret”.
The craft was owned by Seaspeed, the hovercraft operating
subsidiary of British Railways, and ran from the new
hoverport built at the
Eastern
Docks. In August 1969 a second SRN4 was delivered
and the “Princess Anne” opened a second route from Dover
to Calais.
By the mid 1970s increased traffic meant that there
was a need for increased capacity on the hovercraft.
This problem was solved by stretching the SRN4 hovercraft
and turning them into SRN4 Mk3 craft, wich increased
their capacity to 424 passengers and 54 cars. The enlarged
“Princess Anne” re-entered service in 1978 after which
the “Princess Margaret” was also altered. Also in 1978,
on 4 July, the new hoverport was opened alongside the
Prince of Wales Pier
at the western end of the harbour. The SRN4 Mk3 craft
made the journey from Dover to Calais in 35 minutes.
The fastest ever crossing being recorded by the “Princess
Anne” in September 1995 taking only 22 minutes to cross
the Channel.
From July 1978 the SNCF (French Railways) owned Sedam
N500 hovercraft the “Jean Bertin”, was operating with
Seaspeed across the Channel. Sedam’s development programme
had been dealt a crippling blow in May 1977 when the
first N500 craft was destroyed by fire. The second craft,
the “Jean Bertin”, was unreliable and it was withdrawn
for modifications in September 1981. It returned in
March 1983 to the routes of the newly formed Hoverspeed
company but in July the craft was dealt its final blow
when Hoverspeed refused to accept it into their fleet.
Hoverspeed was formed in October 1981 by the merger
of Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd, the Pegwell Bay based company
also operating cross Channel hovercraft. Hoverlloyd
had started their service from Pegwell Bay to Calais
in 1966. By the Early 1980s neither company was making
an adequate return on investments so the two companies
merged to form Hoverspeed based at Dover.
In 2000 Hoverspeed decided to end hovercraft operation.
The abolition of duty-free sales in June 1999 had resulted
in a significant drop in passenger numbers. To continue
on the old basis winter fares would have had to increase
dramatically to recover the lost duty-free profits but
higher fares would result in a further reduction in
passenger numbers. The hovercraft were replaced by
seacats,
which could carry nearly twice as many cars and passengers
although with a slower crossing time to Calais of 45
minutes. The last hovercraft crossing was on Sunday
1 October 2000 and the seacats took over the service
the following day.
