The route runs from Sandbanks to Studland and in doing so connects the coastal parts of the towns of Bournemouth and Poole with Swanage and the Isle of Purbeck.

[1] The entrance to Poole Harbour is a particularly busy waterway, used by many private and leisure craft along with commercial vessels including large ferries serving routes to France.

On 29 August 1976 a 14-foot (4.3 m) sailing dinghy was driven into the side of the ferry by the outgoing tidal run following an engine failure.

She freed herself from the boat before become trapped under the ferry in an air pocket; her father – one of the dinghy crew – went back into the water and pulled her out.

[5] On 16 June 2006, a yacht – the Flying Monkey – sustained severe damage to its mast and sails after a collision with the ferry.

[6] On 1 June 2007 a small motorboat collided with the ferry and was pinned to the side by the current, reportedly after having run out of fuel and drifting into its path.

Their small motorboat had suffered engine failure placing the occupants at risk of being pulled under the chain ferry.

[9] On 16 July 2014, the ferry was forced to stop crossing for two days as one of its chains was again broken by the Barfleur which passed fast and close to the moored Bramble Bush Bay at a very low tide.

The ferry, nicknamed Chug because of the sound of the chains passing through the ship's drive mechanism, is the hero of a children's book of the same name.