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When most people think of winter the most common things to come to mind are bad weather, dark nights and sitting round the fire listening to tales from ye olden days at the port. Equally synonymous with winter for Larne people was seeing a rust streaked Galloway Princess. Here she is showing the badges of another hard year's work as she enters Larne with the 1130 ex Stranraer on the 7/10/90 a few months prior to standing down for a well earned refit. |
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After her January refit and looking clean as a new pin with her new name and new paint, the former Galloway Princess now renamed Stena Galloway enters Larne harbour with the 1130 ex Stranraer on the 2/2/91. She had been dry docked and renamed between 9/1/91 and 1/2/91 at Harland and Wolff Belfast. |
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Best known perhaps through her infamously poor sea keeping rather than her sterling 14 years service at Stranraer, the Darnia sails from Larne with the 1130 service to Stranraer on the 2/2/91. Built as a freight ship in 1977 she served well in that guise at Stranraer between 1978 and 1982. In an attempt to increase her passenger capacity to replace Ailsa Princess she was rebuilt at Immingham with a new accommodation block weighing 400 tons. Whilst increasing passenger capacity from 88 to 412 the new accommodation brought up stability issues with the ship which ultimately made Sealink decide to |
| sell her rather than carry out the necessary alterations to keep her running in the new climate after the Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy in March 1987. Darnia is pictured here covering on the St David's normal cycle while the St David is in for refit. The Darnia herself stood down from service on the 21/2/91 under the command of Captain Allan Miller and was subsequently taken to Bremerhaven for hand over to her new owners Nordstrom and Thulin. After a major refit, which included the fitting of sponsons to cure her stability problems, she entered service for her new owners under the name Nord Neptunus on the 9/4/91. | |
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St David loads at Stranraer prior to her 0700 sailing to Larne on the 14/6/90. Built in 1981 as the final ship in the 4-vessel strong Saint class which was led out by the Galloway Princess in 1980, St David found her way permanently to Larne in 1986. Before this she had spent most of her time on the Holyhead - Dun Laoghaire and Dover - Ostend routes but had served on most of Sealink's route network, including Stranraer, in her role as fleet relief vessel. |
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St David now renamed Stena Caledonia but wearing incomplete Sealink Stena Line livery takes the 1130 sailing from Larne on the 2/3/91. The vessel was hurriedly brought back into service following her Belfast refit after Darnia left the service and there was a delay in Stranraer obtaining her replacement vessel Stena Antrim. |
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With her livery completed Stena Caledonia arrives at Larne with the 0700 ex Stranraer on the 11/5/91. She sailed throughout 1991 without the blue stripe round her bow visor. |
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Relief cover during the refit season in early 1991 was provided initially by Holyhead based freight vessel St Cybi. The vessel is pictured laid up at Larne during the day - the normal practice when operating the freight based roster normally covered by Darnia. Meanwhile the Darnia would have been transferred to the 1130 ex Larne cycle to cover the refit of St David and Galloway Princess. St Cybi is pictured here at Curran Quay on the 16/2/91. Plans to use the French registered Chartres at Larne in 1991 were halted when she was used by the French Government as part of their Gulf War Effort. |
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Also a regular visitor to Larne during the early 1990's was Cambridge Ferry. She arrived from Milford Haven lay up and took up relief service from Stranraer on the 12/1/91, sailing when required. She had to be transferred to Holyhead on the 12/2/91 when Stena Cambria ran aground at low water in Holyhead harbour and holed herself. The Cambridge Ferry was released to returned to Stranraer just before the Darnia left for the last time. She remained in service at Larne until March. |
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With continuing delays in the release of Stena Antrim from Dover - Calais service, Stranraer was given her sister ship, Holyhead's Stena Cambria from mid March. The arrival of Stena Cambria from Holyhead replaced the St Cybi, which returned to base on the Holyhead - Dun Laoghaire service as well as the Cambridge Ferry which returned to Milford Haven lay up. Stena Cambria is pictured bow in at Larne's Curran Quay on 30/3/91. |
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The long wait over Stena Antrim left Dover after her final crossing on the Calais route on the 4/4/91. She took up service from Stranraer on the 7/4/91 joining Stena Galloway and Stena Caledonia. The 'Antrim is pictured here outward from Larne with the 1800 sailing to Stranraer on the 8/5/91. |