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Crossing the Channel - pioneer efforts

First shipwreck? The remains of this Bronze Age boat are now preserved in Dover Museum

c. 1550 BC - 1st channel ferries

1785 - 1st crossing by air in a balloon from Dover Castle to France 1820 - 1st steam-powered ferry in regular service as a cross-channel ferry. This was a 2-tear-old pioneer Glasgow-built paddle-steamer, the "Rob Roy" - bought by the French government to carry the mails from Calais to Dover. It was a tiny boat by today's standards - with a wooden hull, 30-odd hp engine, about 90tons, 15ft wide, 80+ft long. It proved fast and reliable in the open sea. See: History of Channel ferries Early paddle-steamer running into Dover harbour at high tide. 1875 - 1st Channel swim - Captain Webb 1880 - 1st boring for a Channel Tunnel 1909 - first to fly the Channel by aeroplane, Louis Blériot Bleriot was the first to fly a heavier -than-air aircraft across the Channel. His pioneering flight was in 1909, only 6 years after the first powered flight by the Wright brothers in the USA. He flew his monoplane from the beach west of Calais, which was re-named 'Bleriot-plage'; and landed on a hillside meadow by Dover Castle, which has since become woodland. He was born in Cambrai, and later lived in Hardelot, where he was a director of the property company developing the resort, and a keen pioneer of sandyachting in Hardelot. He went on to design many successful aircraft. (picture: commemorative lace in Calais Museum) More information: Hardelot Seaside holidays 1928 - 1st regular car ferry service between Dover - Calais 1953 - 1st RO-RO ("roll-on, roll-off") car ferry berths opened at Dover and Calais 1959 - 1st Channel crossing by hovercraft (Christopher Cockerell in SRN1) 1990 - 1st tunnel completed across the Channel 1994 - Channel Tunnel opens

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	Places to visit: Transmanche Museum, Cap Blanc-Nez
	Nature parks: Boulonnais nature park - beautiful protected coastal area
	Related background information Channel Tunnel Forming the English Channel

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