Two P&O ferries in Dover are due to be taken out of service

Malcolm Dunning, from the Dover branch of the RMT union, fears there could be more cutbacks.

The job losses announced on Tuesday are part of a shake-up to revive the firm's faltering ferry business, which will see 1,200 jobs lost in total.

In Dover, 798 seafaring staff and 41 shore-based workers will be axed.

We have to make sure that we get our business right Russ Peters, chief executive, P&O

Two passenger ferries - the Pride of Provence and the Pride of Acquitaine - are also being taken out of service in Dover.

Mr Dunning said: "It's a very bleak day. I've spoken to several people who have said this is possibly the beginning of the end."

He said he knew of "a lot of demoralised people" and hoped the redundancies would be voluntary rather than compulsory.

The chief executive of P&O, Russ Peters, told BBC Radio Kent the company had been forced into the cuts because of increased competition from budget airlines and the Channel Tunnel.

'Urgent faxes'

"It is difficult to predict what is going to happen in the market place ... I do believe that the product we are now going to be offering is appropriate for the market.

"We have to make sure that we get our business right," he said.

Dover's Labour MP Gwynn Prosser said he would be meeting ministers to discuss the P&O announcement.

"I've already sent urgent faxes to the Employment Department asking them to set up Dover as a special category in order to bring support to those people made redundant, and extra opportunities and training ... and of course link them back into the job market," he said.