Port of registry London, UK In service 2000 Draft 6 m | Yard number 1068 Length 170 m Beam 26 m | |
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Name 2000-2004 European Ambassador2004-2015 Stena Nordica2015-2016 Malo Seaways2016 - onwards Stena Nordica Operator 2000-2004 P&O Irish Sea2004-2015 Stena Line2015-2016 DFDS Seaways2016 GNV2017 onwards Stena Line Builder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | ||
Stena Nordica is a ro-pax ferry owned and operated by Stena Line.
History
Stena Norica was originally built European Ambassador for P&O Irish Sea. She initially entered service between Liverpool and Dublin. Soon after she was used on the new Mostyn - Dublin service. She opened a direct Dublin – Cherbourg route making one round trip at the weekend, with a call to Rosslare outbound in the winter. In 2004, she transferred to Stena Line with P&O's Fleetwood – Larne and Dublin – Mostyn vessels. The Dublin - Mostyn and Dublin - Cherbourg routes were closed following the Stena Line takeover.
Following the closure of the Mostyn service, she was sold to Stena Line in 2004. The European Ambassador sailed for Scandinavia and was renamed the Stena Nordica. She entered service between Karlskrona - Gdynia where she increased capacity significantly. After a major refit including the fitting of new ramps to speed up loading and unloading, the ship entered service under the Swedish flag in May 2004. She returned to Dublin as a relief ship in January 2008, when she arrived from Fishguard and Rosslare, where she had conducted berthing trials. After trials in Dublin she then sailed to Holyhead to take up the roster covering the Stena Seatrader's refit. She then covered the MS Stena Europe's refit and returned to the Baltic in February.
In October 2008 it was announced that the Stena Nordica would be returning to the Irish Sea replacing the Stena Seatrader and to increase capacity between Dublin and Holyhead. In March 2009 the Stena Nordica received a £2 Million refit which improved passenger areas and brought the vessel into line with the rest of the Irish sea fleet.
In 2014 Stena Line took possession of Dieppe Seaways, at the end of its charter to DFDS Seaways, who used the ship on the Dover - Calais route. After refit and they intend to introduce the ship as MS Stena Superfast X in 2015 on their Holyhead - Dublin service. In January 2015, it was announced that DFDS Seaways had chartered Stena Nordica to be the replacement running mate on their Calais route, effectly performing a ship swap.
The Stena Nordica is a close relative to the P&O Irish Sea twins European Causeway and European Highlander, which operate between Cairnryan and Larne.