Red Funnel

A purpose built passenger vehicle ferry. Although not an attractive ship, she was effective in her role, carrying 15,829 cars and 3,147 commercial vehicles in the first six months. She could alo make the trip to Cowes in 40 minutes! She had a couple of collisions, the worst was with an Esso Tanker in 1964 in thick fog, no injuries were reported. With the arrival of the Netley Castle she was sold to operate in Naples.

The Osborne Castle was seen as an improvement on her sister ship the Carisbrooke Castle. Despite this she was mainly restricted to tender work because her design meant she was unsuitable for pier work. She continued until 1978 when she was sold to a Canadian ferry company.

The Cowes Castle was of a similar shape to the Osborne Castle up until 1975 when she was converted to become a roll-on roll-off ferry. Mezzanine decks were also fitted to enable her to carry an extra 25 to 30 cars. On arrival of Red Falcon in 1994 she was sold to Jadrolinija for service in Croatia.

The Norris Castle was a modernized version of her namesake and principally used for commercial vehicles in her early life. Like the Cowes Castle, she was later converted to a roll-on roll-off ferry and mezzanine decks were fitted. In gale force winds in 1981 when turning in the River Medina she was blown on to the Cowes floating bridge but there was no real damage done to either vessel. On the arrival of Red Osprey in 1994 she, like her sister was sold to Jadrolinija for service in Croatia.

The demand for a quicker crossing time led Red Funnel to experiment with different types of high-speed passenger craft. Shearwater was the first of 5 hydrofoils that were introduced during this period. She carried 54 passengers at a speed of between 32-35 knots, the the only problem was reliability. When Shearwater 3 arrived this craft was used as a standby vessel, she was disposed of in 1973.

Convinced there was a market for speed and that the hydrofoil design philosophy was suitable, the company bought Shearwater 2 to improve reliability. This did not prove to be the case and instead she was used as parts to maintain the original hydrofoil. In 1974 she was towed to Portsmouth for scrapping but ended up being sold to operate a ferry service in Loch Fyne.

This new improved hydrofoil with a powerful Mercedes engine proved to be far more reliable and became the mainstay of the service. She could carry 67 passengers and do the crossing in 23 minutes at 32.5 knots. This led to the reintroduction of a winter service. She was held in reserve after the arrival of Red Jet 1 in 1991 and later sold in 1992.

This vessel joined the fleet in August 1973, joining her identical sister Shearwater 3. The vastly improved reliability of these two craft made the previous two hydrofoils redundant. She was demoted to back-up boat after the arrival of Red Jet 2 in 1991 and sold a year later in 1992.

At the time, Netley Castle was the largest vessel built by Red Funnel and was capable of carrying 80 cars (with mezzanine decks deployed) and nearly 1,000 passengers. She was a true doubled-ended design with two wheelhouses which meant on the Southampton-Cowes run she did not have to turn around. With 4 separate Caterpillar engines each driving a steerable propeller, reliability was excellent. On the arrival of Red Eagle in 1996, the Netley Castle was sold to Jadrolinija, joining her old running mates in Croatia.