P&O Ferries Across Five Decades traces the roots history & development of how P&O Ferries came to be established as Britains biggest & leading ferry company. P&O Ferries today operates a fleet of 22 ships serving France Belgium the Netherlands the Republic of Ireland & Northern Irel&. This title traces how P&O Ferries has established itself over the last 50 years together with the history of Thoresen Car Ferries P&O Normandy Ferries the Transport Ferry Service & Townsend Car Ferries which later became Townsend Thoresen Britains leading & iconic ferry company serving Europe & Ireland during the seventies & eighties. The continental routes to Belgium & Holland & to Northern Ireland were originally the brainwave of Frank Bustard with his LST landing craft which opened services on the North Sea & Irish Sea after the Second World War. This operation was later nationalised & then sold to Townsend Thoresen. The routes from Hull to Holland & Belgium established by P&O in the sixties were pioneers of freight operations between the UK & continental Europe with their first ships the Norwaveand Norwind. Following the demise of Townsend Thoresen & the rebranding of operations as P&O European Ferries in 1987 the operations on the North Sea were later absorbed under one management in Dover under P&O Ferries. The book also
Includes:: a short history of P&O Scottish Ferries up until its demise in 2002 when the routes to Orkney & Shetland were taken over by North Link.P&O Ferries Across Five Decades is being published as part of the 175th anniversary of P&O in 2012