April 11th 1987: Launched as a “Chunnel Beater”. First vessel of the fleet to appear in the livery of the new company ownership, P&O European Ferries (Dover) Limited.
 
© Christian Eckardt
November 27th 1987: Delivered to P&O European Ferries, Dover, England. November 28th 1987: Left builders yard for Dover. November 29th 1987: Arrived in Dover. December 2nd 1987: Trials at Calais. December 4th 1987: Maiden voyage to Calais. December 14th 1987: Commenced service between Dover - Calais.
 
© Andreas Wörteler
December 31st 1987: Registered to P&O European Ferries Ltd., Dover, England. February 1988: Laid up at Wilton Feijenoord, Scheidam Harbour near Rotterdam, owing to seaman’s strike June 29th 1988: Returned to service.
© Andreas Wörteler
March 3rd 1998: P&O European Ferries and Stena Line merge there operations on the short sea. The new company was called P&O Stena Line. Registered as a British private sector company, 60% owned by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) and 40% owned by Stena Line AB of Sweden. The new company took over the Dover and Newhaven services of P&O European Ferries and Stena Line. December 1998: Renamed P&OSL CALAIS. April 2002: P&O announced its intention to buy out the 40% stake in P&O Stena Line owned by Stena.
© Andreas Wörteler
July 16th 2002: Out of service for nine days after an accident in Calais harbour. The vessel was going astern from berth 8, where the swing is very tight, and unfortunately grounded as a result of which she damaged a rudder and was sent to Dunkirk for repairs. Although initially the problem looked very serious, she was back in service for the peak summer season. August 2002: P&O Stena alliance ended with P&O purchasing Stena's 40% share in the business. The Dover-Calais fleet adopted the appropriate P&O “Pride of ….” names, losing there P&OSL prefixes. All vessels had their Stena house flag removed from their funnels, along with the deletion of the name Stena from their hulls. In future the company would trade as P&O Ferries. 15th October 2002: Renamed PO Calais. February 2003: Renamed Pride of Calais. March 2004: During her refit she had her bridge wings enclosed. December 27th 2004: Left Dover for refit on the Tyne at A&P Hebburn for two weeks. January 28th 2005: Arrived back in Dover.
© Nigel Thornton
January 4th 2006: Noted being washed down in A&P's dry dock at Hebburn mid-morning on January 4th. It had been scheduled to arrive at 04-00. January 25th 2006: Left dry dock at Hebburn and is at present (11-30-25-01-06) berthed at Whitehill Point, North Shields, in front of the 'Duke of Scandinavia'. She is due to leave the Tyne at 17-59 today.
January 27th 2006: Returned from refit.
 
© Ray Goodfellow (left) and Nigel Thornton (right)
February 21st 2006: Machinery failure occurred whilst berthed in Dover, resulting in the collapse of the gangway. "Date of accident: 21/02/06 Details
The Ro-Ro ferry Pride of Calais was allocated a lay-by berth at the Eastern Arm in Dover to carry out defect maintenance. The ship moored at 1430 using a mix of ropes and wires. The forward moorings comprised 2 head lines, 3 breasts lines (1 wire and 1 rope on a bight) and 3 back springs (1 wire and 1 rope on a bight). The after moorings were arranged with 2 wire stern lines, 2 breast lines (1 wire and 1 rope) and 2 back springs (1 wire and 1 rope). The ropes on the forward mooring deck were left on the winch warping drum ends and backed up on bitts with figure of eight turns around a single bit. Throughout the afternoon the wind was north easterly at 34 knots. At about 1810, broken strands were found on one of the after stern wires. A decision was made to replace the wire but no consideration was given to sending out an additional wire prior to removing the damaged one. At 1834, whilst the damaged wire was being replaced, a ferry entered the eastern breakwater, the wind increased to 37 knots and the single remaining stern wire parted. This resulted in the ship's stern leaving the quay, the gangway being dragged off the quay and the forward breast rope parting. In the meantime, the remaining 2 after wires ran off the winch drums as the brakes rendered. Weight then came onto the after ropes which caused the drum ends to rotate the winch motor backwards because the ropes were not properly backed up on bitts. This caused the winch motor casings to become over-pressurised due to shock loading, causing them to fracture. Fortunately a tug was in the immediate vicinity and a short time later the vessel was re-secured alongside. Action taken
The Chief Inspector has acknowledged a series of measures taken by P&O Ferries to prevent re-occurrence of this accident. However, the Chief Inspector has also advised against the practice, where possible, of; Routinely leaving ropes on drum ends in favour of securing ropes on bitts Mixing ropes and wires for the same type of mooring i.e breast, stern, head and spring lines."
Extract from MAIB Preliminary Investigation
 
© Robert Fournier
18th January 2007: Refitted at A&P Falmouth. Arrived back in Dover on the 12th February 2007. 14th February 2007: Following some severe technical problems the Pride of Calais is in need of an emergency dry docking at Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 16th February 2007: Arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland at 12:00pm and entered Harland and Wolff's dockyard. The reason for the visit, "Vessel to proceed directly to a nominated dry dock facility to examine and deal with damaged fwd rudder skeg iwo frames 229-230" (Lloyds Class Direct Live via Equasis)
 
© Aubrey Dale   
© Trevor Kidd (Larne Ferry Web)
18th February 2007: Departed Harland and Wolff at 13:45 for Dover.
  
© Alan Geddes
19th February 2007: Arrived back in Dover following her emergency dry docking at Harland and Wolff in Belfast. Re-entered service on the 23:00 ex Dover.
© M Fournet
January 13th 2008: ETD from Tyne given as 10.00hrs 14/01/2008 January 14th 2008: Left Tyne for Dover and resumed. February 28th 2009: To ARNO, Dunkerque for hull survey. 13th June 2008: P&O announce they have placed an order with Aker Yards of Finland for two 49,000 GRT vessels for there Dover to Calais operation. The first of these units will be delivered in December 2010 with the second unit coming on stream in September 2011. These two new vessels will replace the Prides of Dover and Calais. March 1st 2009: Left ARNO and returned to Dover. March 17th 2009: To ARNO, Dunkerque.
© Robert Fournier
March 26th 2009: Returned to Dover. February 23rd 2010: Left Dover for refit on the Tyne March 8th 2010: Left
the Tyne. March 9th 2010: Arrived back in Dover and resumed service.
Onboard the Pride
of Calais January 2011
© Paul Bilbrough
(onboardpoferries.com)
February 28th 2011: Stood down from service for
refit at A&P Falmouth.
March 1st 2011: Entered dry dock number 2 at
A&P Falmouth.
March 11th 2011: Returned to Dover and
re-entered service between Dover and Calais.
© Ray Goodfellow
October 23rd 2011: Lost power on the
approach to berth 5 in Calais. As a result she made heavy contact with the
berth and damaged her bow spade. Repairs started in Dover.
October 25th 2011: Owing to Seafrance
strike action she was pressed into service operating as a stern loader.
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Technical Data
AIS Location
History
