MS Pride of Kent
Pride of Kent approaching Calais
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| History | |
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| Name: |
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| Owner: |
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| Operator: | P&O Ferries |
| Port of registry: |
Dover,  United Kingdom
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| Route: | |
| Builder: | Schichau Unterweser AG, Germany |
| Yard number: | 1073 |
| Launched: | 14 December 1991 |
| Completed: | 12 June 1992 |
| Maiden voyage: | 16 June 1992 |
| Identification: | IMO number: 9015266 |
| Status: | In Service |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: |
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| Length: | 179.7 m (589.6 ft) |
| Beam: | 28.3 m (92.8 ft) |
| Draft: | 6.27 m (20.6 ft) |
| Installed power: | 4 x Sulzer 8ZA40S Diesels |
| Propulsion: | Two controllable pitch propellers |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Capacity: |
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MS Pride of Kent is a cross-channel ferry operated by P&O Ferries, which since 2003 has operated on the Dover to Calais route. Before that, between 1992 and 2002, it operated on the Dover to Zeebrugge route.
Colloquially known as Kent, she was built as European Highway in 1991, a sister ship to the MS Pride of Canterbury, and MS European Seaway. Originally servicing Zeebrugge, like Pride of Canterbury, she was converted in 2003 before re-entering service on the Dover–Calais route as Pride of Kent.
She is the second ship to bear the name — MS Spirit of Free Enterprise,but was later renamed Pride of Kent in 1987 (later P&OSL Kent in 1998 and PO Kent in 2002) and continued to sail the Dover-Calais route until 2003.
With the ending of the P&O Stena Line agreement, newly formed P&O Ferries announced that the ex Zeebrügge freight vessels European Highway and European Pathway would be rebuilt at the German Shipyard of Lloyd Werft. On completion of their rebuilds, they would be placed on the premier Dover-Calais service, replacing PO Kent (ex-Spirit of Free Enterprise, Pride of Kent, then POSL Kent) and PO Canterbury (ex-Stena Fantasia). This move became widely known by its P&O in-house code name, Project Darwin. Key features of the converted ships were:
European Pathway was to leave for Bremerhaven on 1 December 2002, followed later in the month by European Highway. The rebuilt ferries were to enter service in April and May of 2003 respectively.
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Wikipedia