ACROSS THE CHANNEL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20905, 20 December 1929, Page 24

ACROSS THE CHANNEL.

GREAT TRAIN FERRY. HARWICH TO ZEEBRUGGE. BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS, Th-' ploughshare that was made out of a sword is to become a sword again—but only temporarily. While the Har-wich-Zeebrugge train ferr’- was lately being used for the transfer of the guns and heavy baggage of the_ Rhine army across the North Sea this interesting peace-time link between Britain and the Continent was reverting for a space to the warlike purpose for which it was originally created. But the reversion is one for which the ferry need feel no shame_ (says an English writer). The guns it is bringing back to-day arc not exactly instruments of peace, but the fact that they are crossing on the ferry now is a gesture of friendliness appreciated bv the former enemy. In the dark days of the war the train ferries were built to ply from the “mystery port ” of Ricliborough to various French ports. It meant time and safety to be able to run munition trucks from Newcastle, Leeds, or Birmingham straight on to the ferry boats and off them again at the other end with scarcely a halt in their journey to the dump. But peace-time commerce needs its time-saving facilities no less than war, and in 1924 the ferries were purchased from the Government by a private company in_ conjunction with the Great Eastern Railway, and daily sailings between Harwich and Zecbruggo were inaugurated.

The ferry ships are not things of beauty. But what they lack in beauty they make up for by their usefulness. Four lines of railway track are mounted on the deck, two in the middle and two running off into bays at either side. Fifty-four loaded 12-ton trucks or their equivalent can be accommodated on each vessel. The voyage takes about eight hours, and the ferries are built to run in any weather.

Thanks to the ferry, there is a direct railway line between places as far distant as Inverness and Reggio in the toe of Italy, between Penzance and Vienna. Goods packed into wagons in Glasgow or Manchester can Joe shipped practically anywhere in Northern and Central Europe without reloading. Fruit is picked in Italy, loaded into wagons and sealed. In a few hours it is being unnaeked from the same truck in London. Liverpool, Cardiff, or Edinburgh. To the Continent the ferries cany mainly engineering material, earthenware, rolling stock, motor cars, and general merchandise. Not long ago Pullman cars were placed in service on the Conti- nt within 24 hours of leaving Leeds, where they were constructed. From the Continent they carry chiefly fruit and farm produce. Within the last few years the ferries have carried some strange cargoes. A party oi elephants, lions, and tigers for Olymnia. a carillon of 27 hells made in Croydon for Louvain University, and two truck loads of valuable pictures sent from London to an _ art exhibition in Vienna. The Harwich-Zeebrugee train ferry is really a moving Channel tunnel, with none of the dangers which some people believe a real tunnel would involve.