As P&O bosses continue to feel the heat from the company's disgraceful method of sacking hundreds of seafaring crew - once again today refusing to row back on their decision - a key defence has been that without such a drastic move the company would, forgive the pun, sink.

Yet while P&O executed a redundancy strategy which is not only set to cost them £36.5 million in payment settlements but also potentially hole them below the water line in terms of reputation, other operators do not have appeared to have fared so poorly.

So just why was P&O the odd one out – a brand which once ruled the short straits seas?

Even the Rail, Maritime & Transport (RMT) union says it has "no definitive answer" as to why it has apparently suffered so.

Rival operators, perhaps unsurprisingly, are also keeping their cards close to their chest when it comes to the profitability of a route so many of us have used over the years for holidays or simply to stock up on cheap plonk.

The answer to P&O's struggles are likely to lie amid the same pressures all the operators are experiencing.

The bigger question is whether what we are seeing happen to P&O be akin to that of the decline of Woolworths – when a once mighty business' financial troubles highlighted an issue which would plague so many big, established, names on the high street.

Certainly all the major cross-Channel operators saw their bottom line hit hard by the pandemic and the travel restrictions which plagued much of 2020 and well into 2021.

The almost complete cessation of tourist traffic for huge swathes of the two years, combined with the impact of Brexit and the more complicated issues now facing freight transport created a perfect storm.

Yet while P&O navigates such perilous waters, what of rivals DFDS and Eurotunnel? Even Irish Ferries has muscled into the short-crossing market - launching a service between Dover and Calais last summer.

Surely these established, multi-million pound names would not be operating on the route if the financial return was so precarious?

Each of the major operators are part of broader groups - ones which operate multiple routes and have a variety of interests; many of which are related to the freight logistics industries on which they heavily rely.

It may, simply, be that they are built on a firmer footing than P&O Ferries.

But delve deep into DFDS' annual report for 2021 and there are signs that it could be a case of too many cooks operating in the Channel spoiling the proverbial broth.

In the report, it explains: "The Channel ferry market freight volumes have overall declined in recent years, partly due to a general decline in UK-EU trade, and partly due to rising demand for unaccompanied ferry services [the practice of putting containers onto freight vessels rather than driving them on and off].

"The long-term impact of Brexit on future Channel freight volumes can likely only be assessed towards the end of 2022 when the entire Brexit agreement is expected to have been implemented. There is thus currently no demand or need in the Channel freight market for additional capacity.

"The excess capacity created by the entry of an additional operator is therefore likely to impact both freight and passenger pricing negatively in 2022.

"Brexit triggered several changes in European ferry markets in 2021. One of the largest was the re-routing of some of the Ireland-Continent freight flows away from the UK landbridge (driving through the UK and crossing via the Dover Strait) to ferry routes sailing directly between Ireland and the Continent.

"The truck driver shortages experienced in 2021 are likely to persist in the coming years. This is expected to support continued growth in the demand for unaccompanied ferry services."

Of course, P&O Ferries' move to make itself "competitive" has resulted in all its passenger and freight traffic switching - albeit temporarily - to swell the coffers of their rivals while its own vessels operating between England and France have now spent more than a week tethered to the dock.

Speaking to MPs on the transport and business select committee last week, P&O Ferries' chief executive, Peter Hebblethwaite explained: “We weren’t viable before, and I know that if we hadn’t made radical changes, the business would have closed.

“That would not have been 800 redundancies with substantial severance packages, that would have been 3,000 people losing their jobs.

“But we now have a competitive, modern business. We have a future now.”

According to its end-of-year financial accounts for 2020, P&O Ferries Holdings lost £85.9m, after tax. The year before, pre-pandemic, its losses were still at £39.8m. All the suggestions are it lost in excess of £100m in 2021.

By way of comparison, Irish Ferries reported a pre-tax loss of £15m in 2020 and £3.4m in 2021.

Danish firm DFDS, meanwhile, delivered a pre-tax profit - albeit a dramatically reduced one given the pressures all the companies have experienced due to the Covid travel restrictions and Brexit.

Eurotunnel was hit hard and recorded, in 2021, losses for the group totalled £190m. Yet despite that - not helped by Eurostar, which pays a toll to using its services, dramatically scaling back its timetable during the Covid crisis - it continues with growth plans. It is also, worth noting, the market leader when it comes to cross-Channel traffic.

So does that mean its rivals could be close to taking similar steps to keep pace with P&O? They are, after all, all feeling the pinch.

Irish Ferries, it should be said, is no stranger to the actions P&O has been so criticised for - having carried out a similar move several years ago.

DFDS, when asked if it was tempted to follow P&O's example to remain competitive, issued a short and sharp statement that said simply: "DFDS remains committed to its people and does not have any plans at this time to make changes to its current structure."

Irish Ferries refused to even engage on the subject.

The government, meanwhile, is looking to take steps to prevent that happening.

Transport Minister Grant Shapps is planning to introduce into law this week that all ships operating in UK waters have to pay the minimum wage - a move he hopes will encourage P&O to re-employ some (or all) of the staff it dismissed. Unions, however, say they want staff back on the money they were receiving.

In response, P&O has said it is not prepared to U-turn its decision - reiterating that to do so would put the company's very future in peril.

Replying to Mr Shapps' call for the nearly 800 staff to be reinstated, Peter Hebblethwaite said: "The circumstances which led P&O Ferries to make the decision in the first place still apply. Complying with your request would deliberately cause the company's collapse, resulting in the irretrievable loss of an additional 2,200 jobs."

Adding: "Please note that even if the national minimum wage were to be applicable, the need to adopt a different crewing model would not change. Under this model, crews are paid for the actual time they work (plus holidays) rather than the previous model in which crews were granted full pay for working 24 weeks a year. That model is unsustainable in the current and very competitive operating environment."

There will always be a demand for ferries crossing between Kent and France - both in terms of tourism and freight.

Yet, as we have seen in years gone by, an overly competitive, crowded market, is difficult to sustain. The loss of SeaFrance in 2011 and Eurotunnel's MyFerryLink in 2015 being two recent examples.

The ferry route, such a long-established route for travellers and employment in the county, clearly, has some troubled waters to traverse yet.