Pride of Dover bows outThe Pride of Dover bows out of service in mid-December after more than twenty years on the Dover-Calais route for P&O Ferries.
Staff at the company will mark the end of an era when the ship makes its final return sailing from Dover at 23.55hrs on 14 December. Among the crew will be members of staff who collected the ship from Bremerhaven, Germany, when it was launched in 1986. They include Nigel Davies, Operations Manager and Simon Johnston, Customer Services Manager. Nigel said: “The Pride of Dover is one of the most successful cross-Channel ferries ever and has carried getting on for 35 million passengers in her time. We’ve all got some great memories of working on her but now we’re looking to the future and the exciting arrival of our new ships next year.â€
The Pride of Dover was launched on 20 September 1986 and entered service from Dover under the command of Captain John Martin, now retired, on 2 June 1987. She was followed into service shortly after by sister ship the Pride of Calais. The pair cost £85 million to build and they were the largest ferries to operate on the Dover Strait up to that time.
In January 2011 the Spirit of Britain will enter service on the Dover-Calais route, replacing the Pride of Dover. It is the first of two huge new ferries being delivered to P&O Ferries at a cost of €360 million and will offer double the carrying capacity of its predecessor.
From P&O F website
