MS ''Isle of Inishmore'' is a ro-ro

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

owned by Irish Ferries and operated on their

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

service. At the time of her introduction, she was the largest car ferry operating in Northern Europe. She is named after Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands. The name of the ferry is tautologous, since "Inishmore" derives from the Irish for "big island". Despite not being sister ships, the ship's design is copied from the

Stena Line Stena Line is a Swedish shipping line company and one of the largest ferry operators in the world. It services Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Stena Line is a major unit of Ste ...

vessel Stena Jutlandica up until the superstructure.

Design and construction

''Isle of Inishmore'' was constructed by

Van der Giessen de Noord Van der Giessen de Noord () was a shipyard, shipbuilding company that mainly built ferry, ferries, located in Krimpen aan den IJssel, a town in the western Netherlands. The yard was especially suited to the construction of large Ship, vessels ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, at a cost of

IR£ The pound (Irish: ) was the currency of the Republic of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the symbol was £ (or IR£ for distinction). The Irish pound was replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin cir ...

60million. Construction commenced in December 1995, and the vessel was launched in October 1996. She was delivered to Dublin in February 1997, before entering service in March 1997. Power is provided by four Sulzer

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s. Each round trip between Rosslare and Pembroke requires 25 tonnes of marine diesel oil.

Career

''Isle of Inishmore'' began her career on Irish Ferries'

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...

route as the flagship of the company's fleet, replacing the 1995 built ''

Isle of Innisfree The "Isle of Innisfree" is a song composed by Dick Farrelly (Irish songwriter, policeman and poet, born Richard Farrelly), who wrote both the music and lyrics. Farrelly got the inspiration for "Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best re ...

''. Following the introduction of the larger onto the route in March 2001, ''Isle of Inishmore'' was redeployed to the Rosslare- Pembroke route. She was replaced on the Pembroke Dock to Rosslare crossing by the ''

Blue Star 1 ''Blue Star 1'' is a Greek ferry, which is owned by Blue Star Ferries. She is a motor Ro-Ro/Passenger ferryboat, built in 2000 by Van der Giessen de Noord shipward in Krimpen aan den IJssel, Netherlands. She is a sistership to '' Blue Star 2''. ...

''. The chartering of the Blue Star 1 freed up Isle of Inishmore from the Pembroke-Rosslare crossing, and, still under the Irish Ferries brand, will be redeployed on the Dover-Calais crossing. After finishing works in Denmark, involving replacing the stern ramp with sliding doors and installing a so-called "cow catcher" at the bow to fit at both Dover and Calais, the ''Inishmore'' arrived in Dover on 19 June 2021, and conducted berthing trials at both Dover and Calais. The vessel then entered service on 29 June.

Incidents

In 2006, the vessel broke its moorings and ran aground, with minor damage. On 30 July 2008 a fire broke out on board the ''Isle of Inishmore'' at Pembroke Dock at approximately 02.30am, in a thermal oil boiler located adjacent to the engine room of the vessel. The function of this boiler is to preheat the fuel oil prior to its use in the ship's main engines. The ship was getting ready to sail for Rosslare at 02:45am, with some 227 passengers and 89 crew on board. All passengers and crew were put on standby. At 4:20am the fire was brought under control with nobody having been injured. The 02:45am Pembroke to Rosslare and the 08:45am Rosslare to Pembroke crossings were both cancelled as a result.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isle of Inishmore Ferries of the Republic of Ireland Ferries of Wales Ships built in Rotterdam 1997 ships