Each ferry carries 73 cars and operates using its own set of slipways and parallel chains, with a vehicle weight limit of 18 tonnes (20 tons).

Frequent users can reduce the fare by half by purchasing top-ups online for a machine-readable windscreen-mounted digital payment tag, called TamarTag, which is also usable on the bridge.

The fully loaded weight of each ferry is given as 1,000 tonnes, powered by up to three 12-litre diesel engines with generators feeding the two electric motors each driving its chainwheel of nearly 2 m diameter.

The steamer was unable to hold a course in the strong tidal flow of the Hamoaze, so it was soon withdrawn and the older ferryboats returned to service.

[3] The steamboat company approached James Meadows Rendel in 1832 and asked him to design a steam-powered floating bridge for the route.

A supplementary steamer service was also introduced in 1902, with the Volta and Lady Beatrice linking Torpoint to two locations in Devonport on a triangular route.

A third, reserve, ferry was ordered and modern shore facilities were also built and twin-ferry operation began in July 1932.

[3] In July 1923 it was reported that an Asian elephant, named Julia, a part of the Bostock and Wombwell Menagerie, had swum across the river after she had broken loose and "launched herself from the ferry".

[4] Motor traffic using the route increased rapidly after World War II, and two new ferries with a capacity of 30 cars each were introduced by 1961.

[5] All three ferries, Lynher, Plym and Tamar, were sold in 2004 for recycling by the company Smedegaarden located at Esbjerg in Denmark.