Crossing the English Channel in the late 1950s

[squibstress]

How long would it likely take?

I have two characters who will be taking the ferry between Dover and Calais in early 1958, but I can't find any information on how long a crossing would have taken at that time. The Guardian helpfully informs me that the first hovercraft crossing occurred in 1959 and took 2 hours and 3 minutes, so I'm assuming a

Comments

[sollersuk]

I'm inclined to suspect a Grauniad glitch if it's talking about Dover-Calais or Dover-Boulogne. I crossed Dover-Boulogne by conventional ferry in the early 1960s and I don't remember it being much more than a couple of hours - it's so short a distance that at night we would go up onto the cliffs and see the lights of Dover.. My parents came over by hovercraft to see me before I moved on from Boulogne to elsewhere in France and I think it took them about half an hour.

I don't know if it would affect you story but you may need to bear in mind currency restrictions. At the time I referred to I was on a three month travelling scholarship in France and my local education authority had to go through a complicated procedure to get money to me while I was in France; the limit was £50 per person, which accounted for the popularity of package holidays as you could pay for your hotel accommodation and most of your food while in the UK. We could never have done what my daughter and I did a couple of years ago, which was spending a couple of weeks travelling around northern Spain by train staying in small establishments and getting all our meals out. The whole issue is the major plot point of Shute's "Trustee from the Toolroom".

[squibstress]

Thank you!

I hadn't considered the currency restrictions; thanks for the tip!