MS ''GNV Antares'', formerly MS ''Pride of Bruges'', is a ship operated by Grandi Navi Veloci.

History

The ship was built by Nippon Kokan K.K. Tsurumi Yard in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

, Japan. The keel was laid in 1985 and was launched in 1986. Upon completion, the ship entered service in 1987 for North Sea Ferries, then a joint-venture between Dutch

Nedlloyd Nedlloyd was a Dutch shipping company, formed in 1970 as the result of a merger of several shipping lines: *Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN) *Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd (KRL) *Koninklijke Java-China-Paketvaart-Lijnen (KJCPL) *Vereen ...

and British P&O. The first years it sailed on the

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 ''"Ne ...

- Hull route with sister ship '' Norsea'', replacing ''Norstar'' and '' Norland''. The ''Norsun'' sailed under the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

flag and was owned by the Dutch half of the joint-venture, while the ''Norsea'' was British. In 1996 ownership transferred to P&O Ferries when Nedlloyd sold its 50% stake to P&O. The ships sailed the Rotterdam route until 2001 when they were replaced by the and the . In 2002 the ships were transferred to the

Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (, from: ''Brugge aan zee'' meaning "Bruges at Sea", french: Zeebruges) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zee ...

-Hull route, again replacing ''Norstar'' and ''Norland''. Both ships were internally modernised before entering service on this new route. In October 2016 it was announced that ''Pride of Bruges'' and '' Pride of York'' would be refitted. In October 2020, P&O announced that ''Pride of Bruges'' and ''Pride of York'' are to be taken out of service due to the decline in traffic caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. On 15 December 2020, P&O announced on Twitter that the service would be stopped from 1 January 2021. Both ''Pride of Bruges'' and sister ship ''Pride of York'' were sold to Grandi Navi Veloci.Former North Sea pair sold to Italy ''

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'' June 2021 page 10

Docking

Hull

''Pride of Bruges'' docked at terminal 2, King George Dock, Hull. Just a few hundred yards away is the terminal for the Hull-Rotterdam ferries. To leave Hull the ship had to squeeze through the lock bow first which only has a few centimetres of clearance on each side. To come back to dock in Hull, she passed through the lock bow first before she had to turn clockwise and reverse into the dock.

Zeebrugge

Zeebrugge was much easier to dock at compared to Hull. The ship simply sailed into Zeebrugge harbour, turned to starboard into a docking area just south of Albert-II Dok and backed into the berth, opening her stern door on the linkspan.

In the media

The ''Pride of Bruges'' featured in Episode Three of the BBC Documentary ''Engineering Giants: Ferry Strip-Down'', first broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday 29 July 2012. Her sister ship, '' MS Pride of York'', was also shown. Ferry Strip Down , Engineering Giants , Spark - title of

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jNz5hs3m7A

References

External links

Norsun
record on The Ferry Site

on Belgium ferry site {{DEFAULTSORT:GNV Antares Ferries of Belgium Ferries of the United Kingdom 1986 ships Ships of P&O Ferries Ships built in Japan