The MS Pride of Winchester, was a UK Ro-Ro/Passenger

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 ...

, which was part of

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 ''Herald of Free Enterprise'' disaster, when '' Townsend Thoresen'' was renamed ''P&O E ...

' fleet. She was built in 1975 by

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

as the Viking Viscount for

Townsend Thoresen European Ferries Group plc was a company that operated in passenger and freight ferries, harbour operation and property management in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was taken over by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Com ...

and was put into service by P&O European Ferries in 1989, when European Ferries Group was purchased by P&O. She was named after

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, a city in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The ship was used on the Portsmouth to Cherbourg route until 1994 when she was replaced by a bigger ship, the original '' Pride of Le Havre''. She also operated on the Calais-Dover line. In 1995 was sold from a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

company Lane Sea Lines for the

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...

Milos Milos or Melos (; el, label=Modern Greek, Μήλος, Mílos, ; grc, Μῆλος, Mêlos) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group. The ''Venus d ...

, Agios Nikolaos,

Sitia Sitia ( el, Σητεία) is a port town and a municipality in Lasithi, Crete, Greece. The town has 9,912 inhabitants (2011) and the municipality has 18,318 (2011). It lies east of Agios Nikolaos and northeast of Ierapetra. Sitia port is on the ...

. Then the ship did the

Kithira Kythira (, ; el, Κύθηρα, , also transliterated as Cythera, Kythera and Kithira) is an island in Greece lying opposite the south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula. It is traditionally listed as one of the seven main Ionian Islands ...

Antikythera Antikythera or Anticythera ( ) is a Greek island lying on the edge of the Aegean Sea, between Crete and Peloponnese. In antiquity the island was known as (). Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Kythira islan ...

, Githio,

Kalamata Kalamáta ( el, Καλαμάτα ) is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula, after Patras, in southern Greece and the largest city of the homonymous administrative region. As the capital and chief port of the Messenia reg ...

, Kisamos. During the Summer of 2017 ''Vitsentzos Kornaros'' had a problem with her engines and then was laid-up in Kinosoura,

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. In April 2020 ''Vitsentzos Kornaros'' sold for scrap in Aliaga,

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Characteristics

Vitsentzos Kornaros could hold a total of up to 1200 passengers and 275 private cars. and was powered by three main engines (2

Werkspoor Werkspoor N.V. was the shortened, and later the official name of the Nederlandsche Fabriek van Werktuigen en Spoorwegmaterieel. It was a Dutch machine factory, known for rolling stock, (ship) steam engines, and diesel engines. It was a successor ...

8TM410 and 1 Werkspoor 9TM410 diesel). with a combined power of 10,655 KW and reached speeds of up to 18 knots. She had stabilizers for sailing in wild sea and -after coming to Greece- cabins for night routes. Her capacity was 6,387 gt.

History

The ship was built in 1976 in Denmark as the Viking Viscount for Townsend Thoresen. In 1989, with the creation of P&O European Ferries (which succeeded Townsend Thoresen) she received the name Pride of Winchester. In 1994, she came to Greece, bought by LANE Sea Lines and underwent a small-scale reconstruction to which cabins were added. Her first route was Piraeus - Milos - Agios Nikolaos - Sitia, but along the way she was launched on other lines such as the line Piraeus-Milos-Santorini-

Anafi Anafi or Anaphe ( el, Ανάφη; grc, Ἀνάφη) is a Greek island community in the Cyclades. In 2011, it had a population of 271. Its land area is . It lies east of the island of Thíra (Santorini). Anafi is part of the Thira regional unit. ...

-Crete-

Kaso KASO (1240 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic hits format. Licensed to Minden, Louisiana, United States, the station serves the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area. The station is located in Minden at 410 Lakeshore Drive on ...

Karpathos Karpathos ( el, Κάρπαθος, ), also Carpathos, is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part o ...

- Halki-Rhodes and Piraeus-Gythio-Kythira-Antikythira-Kissamos, sometimes approaching Kalamata. The ship also operated at the

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

Alexandroupoli Alexandroupolis ( el, Αλεξανδρούπολη, ), Alexandroupoli, or Alexandrople is a city in Greece and the capital of the Evros regional unit. It is the largest city in Western Thrace and the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. It h ...

s link.

The end

On June 16, 2017, after 41 years of uninterrupted operation, the ship was stranded in Piraeus due to a mechanical breakdown. The company hoped she would be repaired by June 30, but the damage was large and the company could not allocate money to repair her, while in case of final withdrawal would have to pay a clause of 480,000 euros. On July 17, it was declared abandoned by the line of Kythera and a tender was announced for the launch of a new ship. In September 2017, she was transferred to Kinosura, Salamina, and at the end of February 2019, a tender was announced for her removal, which was fruitless, while others followed. Finally, in 2020, she was sold to Turkish shipbreakers and was towed to the Aliaga scrap yard for dismantling. Unsolved Kevin Dundon, from Essex, aged 22 went missing while on the vessel returning to Felixstowe from Zeebrugge in Belgium, on 21 September 1980.

Characteristics

History

The end

References

Further reading