NORSEA (1979)

Service dates: 1979-2004

Official number: 379892

Shipping lines: P&O FERRIES; PANDORO; NORTH SEA FERRIES LTD.; POETS FLEET MANAGEMENT LTD.; P&O TRANS-EUROPEAN; P&O EUROPEAN FERRIES; P&O FERRYMASTERS LTD.

Ship type:

• Ferry

Roll on/Roll off Passenger Ferry.

Career

11.09.1978

Keel laid.

27.12.1978

Launched.

15.05.1979

Delivered as Ibex to P&O Ferries Ltd for Pandoro’s Fleetwood/Larne service. Part of a renegotiation order that began life as a 414,000 ton tanker. Within a month of delivery she ran into manoeuvrability problems, and was withdrawn and laid up at Belfast until tests on her sister Puma (renamed Tipperary when delivered in August 1979) showed that a ‘skeg’ between her screws would solve the problem. Ibex had this fitted by Harland & Wolff at Belfast and she and Tipperary then took over the joint Pandoro/British & Irish Steam Packet Company Fleetwood/Dublin service.

30.12.1980

Renamed Norsea for freight ferry service Ipswich/Rotterdam operated jointly by North Sea Ferries and Ferrymasters Ltd.

31.12.1984

Ownership and management transferred to POETS Fleet Management Ltd.

23.08.1986

Renamed Norsky.

25.07.1990

Ownership and management transferred from POETS Fleet Management Ltd to P&O Ferrymasters Ltd.

22.09.1994

Re-measured. Tonnages now 14,077 gt, 4,223 nt.

31.12.1994

Management reverted to POETS Ship Management Ltd. Breadth 22.40m. Speed 18.7 knots.

24.04.1995

Ownership transferred from P&O Ferrymasters Ltd to Pandoro Ltd. Now registered at Hamilton, Bermuda. Call sign now ZCBB2.

30.04.1995

Ipswich/Rotterdam service closed. Transferred to Pandoro service Liverpool/Dublin.

03.09.1995

Renamed Ibex.

19.08.1996

Redelivered after refit as a roll on/roll off passenger ferry by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead. Moulded breadth now 23.90m, tonnages 18,429 gt, 6,850 nt, 4,267 tonnes dwt, capacity 70 passengers.

End 1996

Tonnages now 18,653 gt, net 5,595 nt. Speed 18.2 knots, capacity 129 x 12-metre trailers, crew 32. Now fitted with triple bow thruster and stern azimuth thruster.

01.07.1997

Operators renamed P&O Trans European.

30.09.1997

Managers renamed P&O Ship Management (Irish Sea) Ltd.

01.10.1997

Operation transferred to P&O European Ferries.

31.12.1997

Renamed European Envoy.

31.12.1999

Liverpool/Dublin service now carries passengers and freight.

n.d.

Mostyn/Dublin service.

20.04.2004

Sold to Stena AB and renamed Envoy. She was immediately laid up.

2004

Sold to Trond A Kttelsen Shipping A/S, Norway and chartered to Kystlink A/S for service between Langesund and Hirtshals.

10.2004

Sold to Kystlink A/S.

2005

Briefly chartered back to P&O Ferries for their Liverpool/Dublin service.

2005

Briefly chartered to Transrussia for their Lubeck/Mukran/St Petersburg/Baltijsk/Lubeck circuit.

09.2005

Opened a new service between Ijmuiden and Harwich on charter to Nedlines.

No further details

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