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FREE ENTERPRISE VI (1972)
Service dates: 1987-1996
Official number: 357533
Shipping lines: EUROPEAN FERRIES GROUP; TOWNSEND CAR FERRIES; P&O EUROPEAN FERRIES (DOVER); P&O EUROPEAN FERRIES (FELIXSTOWE)
Ship type:
Roll on/Roll off Passenger Ferry.
Career
- 29.01.1972
- Launched.
- 06.1972
- Delivered as Free Enterprise VI for Townsend Car Ferries Ltd, Dover, for the Dover/Calais/Zeebrugge/Boulogne service.
- 10.1985
- Extensively refitted by Schichau-Unterweser AG, Bremerhaven, West Germany. The passenger accommodation deck was 'sliced off' horizontally and a new vehicle deck was installed. The passenger accommodation deck was then refitted, one deck higher than before. A new bow section was fitted, allowing through loading on both vehicle decks.
- 19.01.1987
- The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company acquired European Ferries Group Plc which included Townsend Car Ferries Ltd.
- 01.12.1987
- Renamed Pride of Sandwich.
- 31.12.1987
- Owners restyled P&O European Ferries (Dover) Ltd.
- 18.03.1991
- Sold by P&O European Ferries (Dover) Ltd to BMBF (No.15) Ltd and then leased back.
- 01.01.1992
- Transferred to Cairnryan/Larne service.
- 05.03.1992
- Renamed Pride of Ailsa.
- 01.12.1992
- Management transferred to P&O European Ferries (Felixstowe) Ltd.
- 11.06.1996
- Sold to Pacific Prestige SA, Panama, and renamed Pride of Al Salem 95.
- 17.10.2005
- Involved in a collision with a container ship near Port Tewfiq with a loss of one life. The ferry was at sea awaiting safe passage to enter the port of Suez when she was rammed by the Cypriot registered cargo ship Jebal Ali. The ship ran into the side of the ferry, tearing a 5.0m hole in her side in the vicinity of the engineroom. After the collision, both ships locked together so the ferry remained afloat long enough for the passengers to board the Jebal Ali and from there be transferred ashore by a flotilla of rescue vessels. Once the two vessels broke apart Pride of Al Salam 95 sank in around 3½ minutes. Reports suggest that up to eleven people may have died in the incident, killed either by the impact of the collision or in the stampede as passengers attempted to get to safety as quickly as possible. At least a further 98 of the ferry's passengers were being reported as injured.