A man who set sail on the first P&O vessel to leave port since the sacking of around 800 members of staff described the vessel as a “ghost ship” with few aboard.
Earlier this month hundreds of employees were informed their contracts were being immediately terminated via a brutal video call, prompting union protests and some being dragged from vessels by security.
They have been replaced with agency staff paid far less while ports including Dover and Hull descended into chaos as routes were temporarily axed.
Last weekend a Hull Live reporter was among those climbing the gangplank of the Pride of Rotterdam on its first journey since the controversy, on an overnight trip to the Netherlands.
Joe Gerrard said of the journey: “The place had the air of a ghost ship.
“The vast majority of the hospitality staff, those manning the three bars on board, and cafes and restaurants, were of Asian backgrounds and were men. I saw one English woman on the ship’s reception desk which appeared to be staffed by Europeans.
“The ship’s bridge staff, its captain and the mariners in their double-breasted suit jackets with nautical epaulettes, were all European, predominantly Dutch, including the captain. The higher up the hierarchy you went, the more likely the workers were to be white and European. The further down you went, the more likely they were to be BAME and non-European.
“After dropping off my bags in my cabin, which was well-kept and clean, I began exploring the ship. The ferry, much like my cabin, was generally neat and orderly, ship shape you might say.
“I wandered into their ‘casino’ of sorts, which consisted of a roulette table and some virtual poker and blackjack machines.
“The roulette table was broken and bore a ‘P&O Ferries- Out of order’ sign.
“I thought to myself: “After what happened, you can say that again”.
“It remains to be seen if P&O’s gamble with its staff will pay off.”
During the sailing he spoke to a worker who said he was Filipino and would live on the ship for months at a time and only with brief visits ashore on their days off.
The reporter added: “I asked him where he was from and what the conditions were like for him and his shipmates.
“He told me he and others worked six months aboard, with two months off in port, both in Hull and Rotterdam. He said the crew lived aboard the ship but were at liberty to go ashore and please themselves in their time off and had dined in Hull city centre.
“‘How do you feel about what happened to the Pride of Hull crew?” I asked, “Are you worried?”
“‘We feel sorry for them, definitely, but to be honest we’re not worried for our jobs, we know we’ll be okay.’”
A male passenger added: “To be honest, if I’d have known about it I wouldn’t have sailed, I thought what they did was horrible.
“But I booked this trip a while ago and it cost me a lot of money, so if I didn’t go I would have lost it.”
Another said: ““Don’t get me wrong, I feel really sorry for the crews. But when we were getting on the ship we got shouted at by some, that’s not the way to get our sympathy.”
It comes as two ferries were detained following safety inspections on the back of the firm sacking 800 staff so as to bring in cheaper agency workers.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has said after undertaking a safety inspection it was "in the process" of holding The Pride of Kent on Monday.
