As we know, the liner days are gone. But it is still possible to sail regular routes on ships, some quite lenghty like the P&O service between Portsmouth in England and Bilbao (Bilbo) in the Basque Country. This service, one day and one night at sea, is a little like an ocean liner voyage. It is also a little like the first services operated by the Peninsular Steam & Navigation Company, the forerunner of the P&O Line. Some well-known European ferrycompanies also have their roots in linertravels. like the above named P&O Ferries of course, but also the DFDS Seaways for example. Ferryroutes are also older then the big linerroutes on the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Atlantic. So it is a very interesting part of seatravel, also when you want to keep the past in mind.

Next to the internationally well-known ferrycompanies, I have included some smaller ferries that sail national route's in the Netherlands. Often, the companies they are sailing for have a long and interesting history. They are a very important part of the fleet of passengerships because they mostly sail to islands that do not have another connection to the mainland. In that way, for me they represent a link to a time in which there were no aircraft and people relied on passengerships. Next to that, these ferries can be very handsome also, and sometimes their size can equal that of smaller or midsized cruiseliners.

King Of Scandinavia of DFDS Seaways entering from Newcastle at the port of IJmuiden under the rays of morning sunlight on the 6th of june 2010.