Name Norstar Yard number 973 Out of service 1996 | Owner Nedlloyd In service 1974 Launched 1974 | |
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Port of registry | ||
Norstar was a P&O roll-on/roll-off ferry operating between Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England and Rotterdam Europoort, Netherlands and later on the Hull-Zeebrugge, Belgium line.
History
The 27,000 gross ton ferry was built in 1974 by AG Weser, Bremerhaven for Dutch North Sea Ferries partners Noordzee Veerdiensten N.V. Sistership Norland sailed under British flag and Norstar under the Dutch flag with (mainly) Dutch crew. The ship transferred to P&O North Sea Ferries in 1996.
On the UK side ferries needed to pass locks to berth in King George Dock, and both ships Norstar and Norland were designed as large as possible for the locks in 1974. From launch until 1987 it sailed the Hull-Rotterdam route and from 1987 until 2001 it sailed on the Hull-Zeebrugge route.
Norstar and Norland were replaced by Norsea and Norsun in 1987 on the Rotterdam route. Both ships were stretched and modernized by the original builder before entering service on the Zeebrugge route. The maximum dimensions to pass the locks allowed larger new ships for the Rotterdam route and also permitted the enlarging in 1987. An extra 20.25 meters was added in 1987, resulting in a length of 173.29 meters, 25.2 meters wide and a gross tonnage of 26,916 gross tons.
In March 2000 the Norstar suffered a major engine fire and upon arrival in Zeebrugge was decommissioned. Leaving Norland to operate the service alone. Due to this the new ferries Pride of Hull and Pride of Rotterdam swapped names so that Pride of Rotterdam could enter service first with Dutch crew that were on Norstar.
The Norstar and sistership Norland were sold to SNAV in Italy and sailing between Naples and Palermo as SNAV Campania.
In 1987, the Norstar was used for filming The Beiderbecke Tapes.
The Norstar and her sister ship, the Norland were broken up at Alang, India in Summer 2010.