Pride of Le Havre (1975)

"Pride of Le Havre" was the name of ferry for P&O ferries that sailed between Portsmouth and Le Havre from 1989 to 1994. From launch until 1994, she was known as the "Viking Valiant" for Townsend Thoresen and P&O. From 1994 to 2002 she was renamed "Pride of Cherbourg" for P&O, as "Pride of Al Salam 1" for El Salam Maritime, most recently as "Mogador" for COMANAV.

History

"Pride of Le Havre" was built in 1975 at Aalborgs Værft A/S, Ålborg, Denmark as "Viking Valiant" for Townsend Thoresen to operate between Southampton and Le Havre or Cherbourg. She also saw service between Felixstowe and Zeebrugge. In 1984 Townsend Thoresen moved its western channel passenger services from Southampton to Portsmouth. After two years sailing from Portsmouth "Viking Valiant" was sent to Bremerhaven in 1986 to be enlarged. This involved removing the superstructure of the vessel from its original hull, adding an upper vehicle deck and reattaching the superstructure to mostly new hull, the stern section of the hull was retained for use as part of the new hull. The enlarged vessel re-entered service later that same year and sailed between Portsmouth and Le Havre.

With the takeover of Townsend Thoresen by P&O and the sinking of the "Herald of Free Enterprise" in 1987, P&O wanted to drop the Townsend Thoresen name and the ship names associated with the company. Later in 1987 Townsend Thoresen became P&O European Ferries and in 1989 "Viking Valiant" became "Pride of Le Havre". She continued to sail under that name until 1994 when she was transferred to the Portsmouth-Cherbourg route as a result of larger vessels being chartered for the Le Havre route. She was renamed "Pride of Cherbourg", the second vessel to carry that name, and sailed to Cherbourg with the odd period of refit cover on the Le Havre route until 2002 when she was replaced and sold by what was now P&O Portsmouth. Prior to her replacement she briefly carried the name "Pride of Cherbourg A" to free the original name for her replacement.

After her service with P&O she was sold to El Salam Maritime as the "Pride of Al Salam 1". She was later chartered to COMANAV and is currently named "Mogador".

Statistics

"Original Specification"
*Gross Tonnage: 6,387
*Length: 128.71m
*Beam: 19.84m
*Vehicle Capacity: up to 204 cars
*Passengers: 1,200
*Engines: Två Werkspoor 8TM410, En 9TM410 diesel

After Enlargement""'

*Gross Tonnage: 14,760
*Length: 143.66m
*Beam: 23m
*Vehicle Capacity: up to 370 cars
*Passengers: up to 1,316

Sister Ships

"Viking Valiant" was one of four sister ships ordered by Townsend Thoresen.

The other three were:
*"Viking Venture" - later the "Pride of Hampshire", now "Oudja"
*"Viking Voyager" - later "Pride of Cherbourg" (1), now "Samothraki"
*"Viking Viscount" - later "Pride of Winchester", now "Vitsentzos Kornaros"