MS ''Pride of Burgundy'' was a cross-channel ferry owned by P&O Ferries. It operated on the Dover to Calais route from 1993 to 2022.

History

MS ''Pride of Burgundy'' was planned as the fourth 'European Class' freight-only vessel, to be named ''European Causeway'' for

P&O European Ferries P&O European Ferries (formerly Townsend Thoresen), a division of P&O Ferries, was a ferry company which operated in the English Channel from 1987 after the MS Herald of Free Enterprise#Capsizing, ''Herald of Free Enterprise'' disaster, when ''T ...

' Dover to

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 ...

route. Due to demand on the Dover - Calais route, the ship was converted to a multi-purpose ferry (passengers and freight) prior to completion with the addition of extra superstructure. It is a commonly stated in ferry publications and website that the original choice of name for the ship was ''Pride of

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

''. By capacity, she is one of the smallest Dover – Calais ferries, only taking 1,200 passengers and 600 cars. In 2010 she was chartered to Ramsgate in east

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

to host the opening of the

Thanet Wind farm The Thanet Wind Farm (also sometimes called Thanet Offshore Wind Farm) is an offshore wind farm off the coast of Thanet district in Kent, England. On commissioning it was the world's largest offshore wind farm. It has a nameplate capacity (max ...

. ''Pride of Burgundy'' took new crew, wind farm employees, their families and VIPs right out to sea to see the

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

s up close. She was back in service the next day On 27 October 2012 ''Pride of Burgundy'' collided with the

MyFerryLink MyFerryLink was an English Channel passenger and freight ferry company which began operating between Dover and Calais in August 2012. The MyFerryLink fleet consisted of two modern ferries – sister ships the and the – that carried passen ...

ship due to high winds, sustaining minor damage to the right bridge wing, which was fixed in a couple of hours. ''Berlioz'' received damage to her lifeboats putting her out of service. ''Pride of Burgundy'' departed Dover on 3 March 2017 for Gdansk (Poland) where she underwent a major refit. She arrived at the Remontowa shipyard on 5 March and returned to Dover on 25 March, resuming her usual Dover to Calais schedule the following day. In early 2019, ''Pride of Burgundy'', like all P&O vessels on the Dover-to-Calais route, was re-flagged to Cyprus, a measure explained by the company as motivated by tax advantages in view of

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

. She was registered in Limassol. From 3 May 2020, ''Pride of Burgundy'' was docked at the Port of Leith, Scotland, as a result of the reduction in traffic across the straights of Dover due to 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 ...

. She returned to Dover in late October that year, re-entering service on 3 November in a freight-only mode. On 7 December 2020 the ship was moved to the

River Fal The River Fal ( kw, Dowr Fala) flows through Cornwall, England, rising at Pentevale on Goss Moor (between St. Columb and Roche) and reaching the English Channel at Falmouth. On or near the banks of the Fal are the castles of Pendennis and ...

lay up berths near

Falmouth, Cornwall Falmouth ( ; kw, Aberfala) is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,797 (2011 census). Etymology The name Falmouth is of English ...

. In April 2023 it arrived in

Aliağa Aliağa is a town and a district of Izmir Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The town is situated at about north of Izmir. Aliağa has a large port, mainly for oil and bulk cargo. Its economic activity is based on tourism, shipbreaking ...

, Turkey for

scrapping Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

.Farewell to Dover stalwart ''

Ships Monthly Kelsey Media is a magazine publisher and trade fair company based in Yalding, England. Founded in 1989, it has bought and sold many publications over the years, including former Bauer Media Group magazines ''Sea Angler'', ''Car Mechanics'' and ' ...

'' May 2023 page 9

Sister ships

''Pride of Burgundy'' has no identical sisters because of her conversion to multi-purpose passenger vessel during construction. She shares mechanical, layout and visual features with the other 'European Class' ships in the P&O fleet:- * * (ex-''European Pathway'') * (ex-''European Highway'')

References

External links

mv Pride of Burgundy @ The Online Guide to P&O Ferries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pride of Burgundy Ferries of the United Kingdom Ferries of France Connections across the English Channel 1992 ships Ships of P&O Ferries