Pride of Rotterdam in Gdansk, 11 January 2018

Shockingly, this week's entry is not about the Baltic Princess – but is does consist of images taken during the BP's docking trip from Turku to Gdansk. Amongst the ships encountered during that voyage was the Pride of Rotterdam - a ship I had not chanced to see before, so it is well deserving its own entry.

Pride of Rotterdam

IMO 9208617
Built 2001, Fincantieri Venice, Italy
Tonnage 59 925 GT
Length 215,44 m
Width 31,85 m
Draugth 6,02 m
1 360 passengers
1 360 passenger berths
2500 cars and 400 trailers
3 300 lanemetres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 37 800 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

The Pride of Rotterdam and her sister Pride of Hull were contracted by what was then P&O North Sea Ferries from Fincantieri in 1999 for the – you guessed it! – Hull-Rotterdam route as replacements for the 1980s-vintage Norsea and Norsun. Originally, the names of the pair were reversed, with the first ship due to be named Pride of Hull (and placed under the UK flag), but during construction these were altered so that the first ship became the Pride of Rotterdam and was placed under the Dutch flag.

Following delivery in April 2001, the ship sailed to the Netherlands and was named by Queen Beatrix. At the end of the month the Pride of Rotterdam entered service on the Hull-Rotterdam route, on which she remains to this day, having apparently only left the route for the occasional docking. In 2002, the name of her operator changed from P&O North Sea Ferries to plan P&O Ferries, when the company simplified their branding, doing away with the various sub-brands for different operational areas.

The photos below show the Pride of Rotterdam at the Remontowa shipyard in Gdansk on 11 January 2018, being reversed into drydock. Photographed from onboard the Baltic Princess. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

Our timing was perhaps less than ideal, as this was the only near-decent shot I got showing the whole ship. Then again, the schedule was not exactly planned with photography in mind.

I guess these sisters were some of the earliest examples of a livery with a convex curve to make the ship appear less rectangular.

In the floating dock, with the tanker Yeoman Bridge high and dry in the other floating dock on the right.

Next time: Aidaprima (unless something more important comes up in the interim)