 Strikers also briefly blockaded the entrance to the Channel Tunnel |
Hundreds of lorries remain backed up on motorways in Dover and Calais after two days of blockades in France ended on Friday morning. Kent Police has closed junction 12 of the M20 to allow lorries to queue on the motorway for the next ferry.
Seamen blocked Calais port on Thursday, a day after fishermen halted services with protests over quotas.
P&O and SeaFrance have both begun running services and hope to clear all passengers by Friday afternoon.
One P&O Ferries manager in Calais said he had not seen such a heavy backlog of traffic in his 30 years of service.
Motorway delays
The company said tens of thousands of tourists and lorry drivers had been affected by the blockade on Wednesday, and Thursday's strike by 1,200 SeaFrance staff over allowing foreigners into the French merchant navy.
 |  We can only apologise to passengers who have been affected  |
P&O's first ferry left Dover at 0530 GMT on Friday, arriving in Calais shortly after the strike ended at 0700 GMT.
A spokesman said the huge capacity of its vessels meant the backlog could be cleared before the end of the day.
SeaFrance said its first service left Calais at 0900 GMT and would depart from Dover again at 1100 GMT.
"We can only apologise to passengers who have been affected," said a spokesman.
Kent Police said it had launched Operation Stack on Thursday afternoon, to avoid regular traffic getting caught up in the backlog of lorries.
The vehicles are stacked up on the M20, and causing delays to traffic having to avoid junction 12 of the motorway, said police.
Injunction
P&O said it had "respect" for the right to strike, but had "complete contempt" for the nature of the action.
Their spokesman said an "ugly mob" of around 200 strikers threw bottles and luggage trolleys into the water to prevent a P&O ferry trying to dock in Calais on Thursday.
The company succeeded in getting a court injunction against the activists, but said the French authorities did not enforce it.
In a further attempt to break the blockade the chairman of P&O met with the French ambassador in London.
Among those stranded on Thursday were hundreds of schoolchildren trying to return from trips to France.
Sailings to Cherbourg were also affected with Brittany Ferries forced to cancel a service from Poole.
French unions say the plan to liberalise merchant shipping threatens jobs and safety.
Wednesday's blockade by fishermen led to more than 40 ferry cancellations, and was likely to have cost UK industry more than �1m, the Freight Transport Association said.
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