Pride of Le Havre

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The Pride of Le Havre was the name given to two different P&O ferries.

1 The First Pride of Le Havre
- 1.1 Statistics
- 1.2 Sister Ships
2 The Second Pride of Le Havre
- 2.1 Sister Ships
- 2.2 Statistics

[edit] The First Pride of Le Havre

The first ferry to carry the name Pride of Le Havre was built at Aalborgs Værft A/S, Ålborg, Denmark as the Viking Valiant for Townsend Thoresen to operate between Southampton and Le Havre or Cherbourg. She also saw service between Felixstowe and Zeebrugge. In 1984 Townsend Thoresen moved its western channel passenger services from Southampton to Portsmouth. After two years sailing from Portsmouth the Viking Valiant was sent to Bremerhaven in 1986 to be enlarged. This involved removing the superstructure of the vessel from its original hull, adding an upper vehicle deck and reattaching the superstructure to mostly new hull, the stern section of the hull was retained for use as part of the new hull. The enlarged vessel re-entered service later that same year and sailed between Portsmouth and Le Havre.

With the takeover of Townsend Thoresen by P&O and the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987, P&O wanted to drop the Townsend Thoresen name and the ship names associated with the company. Later in 1987 Townsend Thoresen became P&O European Ferries and in 1989 Viking Valiant became the Pride of Le Havre. She continued to sail under that name until 1994 when she was transferred to the Portsmouth-Cherbourg route as a result of larger vessels being chartered for the Le Havre route. She was renamed Pride of Cherbourg, the second vessel to carry that name, and sailed to Cherbourg with the odd period of refit cover on the Le Havre route until 2002 when she was replace and sold by what was now P&O Portsmouth. Prior to her replacement she briefly carried the name Pride of Cherbourg A to free the original name for her replacement.

After her service with P&O she was sold to El Salam Maritime as the Pride of Al Salam 1. She was later chartered to COMANAV and is currently named Mogador.

[edit] Statistics

Original Specification

Gross Tonnage: 6,387
Length: 128.71m
Beam: 19.84m
Vehicle Capacity: up to 204 cars
Passengers: 1,200
Engines: Två Werkspoor 8TM410, En 9TM410 diesel

'After Enlargement

Gross Tonnage: 14,760
Length: 143.66m
Beam: 23m
Vehicle Capacity: up to 370 cars
Passengers: up to 1,316

[edit] Sister Ships

Viking Valiant was one of four sister ships ordered by Townsend Thoresen. The other three are:-

Viking Venture - later the Pride of Hampshire, now Oudja.
Viking Voyager - later Pride of Cherbourg (1), now Samothraki.
Viking Viscount - later Pride of Winchester, now Vitsentzos Kornaros.

[edit] The Second Pride of Le Havre

The second ferry to carry the name Pride of Le Havre was built at Schichau Seebeckswerft AG ,Bremerhaven,Germany for Olau Line as the Olau Hollandia for service between Sheerness and Vlissingen. The vessel was chartered to P&O European Ferries in 1994 and was renamed Pride of Le Havre to replace the original on the Portsmouth-Le Havre route though she entered service for P&O on the Cherbourg route because of delays in finishing the new ferry terminal in Le Havre. The second Pride of Le Havre sailed on the Portsmouth-Le Havre route until 30 September 2005 when the P&O Ferries route closed. Her owners sold the vessel and her sister to SNAV and she was renamed SNAV Sardegna for service between Civitavecchia and Palermo.

[edit] Sister Ships

Olau Hollandia was one of two ships built for Olau Line, the other is:-

Olau Britannia - later Pride of Portsmouth of P&O Ferries, now SNAV Lazio.

There are also 3 other near sisters or close relations:-

Koningin Beatrix - now Stena Baltica of Stena Line. Built 1986

Peter Pan - later Spirit of Tasmania (1) then Fjord Norway. She was transferred to DFDS Seaways on 16 October 2006 and renamed Princess of Norway. Built 1986.