''Stena Britannica'', launched in 2009, is the second of two identical

Ropax Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or usi ...

cruiseferries A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while ot ...

built by Wadan Yards in

Warnemünde (, literally ''Mouth of the Warnow'') is a seaside resort and a district of the city of Rostock in Mecklenburg, Germany. It is located on the Baltic Sea and, as the name implies, at the estuary of the river Warnow. is one of the world's busie ...

and nearby

Wismar Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

for Stena Line. The first of the two ships, launched in January 2010, was . Both ships operate across the southern

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

between

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England, and

Hook of Holland Hook of Holland ( nl, Hoek van Holland, ) is a town in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; ''hoek'' means "corner" and was the word in use before the word ''kaap'' – "cape", from Portuguese ''cabo'' – became Dutch. The English t ...

, Netherlands, providing a twice daily service. The ships were specifically designed for this route.

Design and description

''Stena Britannica'' has four main

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

engines, producing between them , and providing for a maximum speed of . Two of the engines are rated at and the other two at . The engines are connected via two gearboxes to two

controllable pitch propeller In marine propulsion, a variable-pitch propeller is a type of propeller with blades that can be rotated around their long axis to change the blade pitch. Reversible propellers—those where the pitch can be set to negative values—can also ...

s. The two

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

s, one behind each propeller, are of the Becker flap type with twisted leading edges. Control of the bow while docking is by two tunnel thrusters. Heat from the main engines is also used to heat the ship.

Loading characteristics

The vehicle decks can be loaded on two levels from both the bow and stern on decks 3 and 5 and there are two-tier

linkspan A linkspan or link-span is a type of drawbridge used mainly in the operation of moving vehicles on and off a roll-on/roll-off (RO-RO) vessel or ferry, particularly to allow for tidal changes in water level. Linkspans are usually found at ferry t ...

s in both Harwich and Hook of Holland to accommodate the ship.

Construction and career

The ferries, then designated "RoPax 55" ferries, were originally ordered from the shipbuilders Waden Yards (subsequently subsumed into

Nordic Yards Wismar Lloyd Werft Wismar (former '' VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft Wismar'', ''Aker MTW Werft'', ''Wadan Yards MTW'', ''Nordic Yards Wismar'') is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Wismar. Since June 1, 1990 it has been part of the Deutschen Mas ...

) by Stena Line in 2006. The total value of the order amounted to approximately €400 million. Delays arose when Stena temporarily withdrew the order in response to economic difficulties being experienced by Waden Yards. After further negotiations the order was reinstated, but the new agreement included a price cut of 6% or approximately €24 million. The ships having been completed, naming ceremonies took place on 8 June 2010 for at

and on 19 October 2010 at

for ''Stena Britannica''. On the overnight crossing between Hook of Holland and Harwich on 17 January 2018, a fire broke out on one of the refrigerated lorries and subsequently spread to other lorries but did not breach the lorry decks. The vessel was subsequently taken to

Schiedam Schiedam () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of Rotterdam, east of Vlaardingen, and south of Delft. In the south the city is connected with the village ...

and returned to service three days after the fire.

In popular culture

''Stena Britannica'' is the focus of the Season 4 Episode 4 of the documentary TV show ''

Mighty Ships ''Mighty Ships'' is a documentary television program produced by Exploration Production Inc. in Canada and aired on Discovery Channel Canada and also broadcast around the world. Each episode of the series follows a particular sea-going vessel ...

''. The episode first aired on 16 October 2011. During filming a problem with the locking pins of the bow watertight door meant that, for 72 hours / six crossings, loading and unloading could only be carried out via the upper ramp while engineers worked night and day to resolve the problem.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stena Britannica 2009 ships Ferries of England Ships built in Wismar Britannica