East Quay

The development of Newhaven’s harbour

The picture above shows a busy scene as a boat is loaded with supplies for the Western Front in the First World War.  This was a labour-intensive process, and many women were drafted in to do this work because of labour shortages as men were enrolled to fight.  Over 2.6 million tons of ammunition, 2.2 million tons of supplies and nearly 1 million tons of ordnance stores were shipped in 8,330 sailings of transport ships.  About 10,000 troops also left from here for the battlefields of France.

The Roll -on Roll-off car ferry service started in 1964 and transformed the cross-channel traffic.  Here a ferry operated by Sealink is turning in the harbour, a difficult manoeuvre as there was only just room.  Today’s ferries are larger and have to reverse out of the harbour.  Crossing times of less than 3hours 20 minutes were achieved by steam powered boats – today, fuel economy dictates that the boats travel slower and take about 4 hours for the journey to Dieppe.

Newhaven Historical Society have kindly provided the information and photographs. To find out more information, please visit Newhaven Historical Society