P&O European Ferries (formerly Townsend Thoresen), a division of P&O Ferries, was a ferry company which operated in the English Channel from 1987 after the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster, when Townsend Thoresen was renamed P&O European Ferries, until 1999 when the Portsmouth Operations became P&O Portsmouth and the Dover Operations were merged with Stena Line AB to make P&O Stena Line.
History P&O European Ferries was formed after the Townsend Thoresen ship, Herald of Free Enterprise, capsized outside Zeebrugge in 1987. P&O owned the whole of European Group who marketed their ferry services as Townsend Thoresen. After the bad publicity that the Zeebrugge disaster brought to the brand P&O quickly rebranded Townsend Thoresen as P&O European Ferries with all of the former TT fleet, all of the vessels received the Blue P&O hull and blue funnel.
In 1993 P&O launched a new Portsmouth to Bilbao route using the former Olympia and renamed her the Pride of Bilbao. In 1994 when Olau Line ceased operations the 2 German built superferries Olau Britannia and Olau Hollandia were chartered to P&O and they were both renamed the Pride of Portsmouth and the Pride of Le Havre respectively. The new Pride of Le Havre replaced the first ship of that name which was renamed Pride of Cherbourg and replaced the original Pride of Cherbourg on the Portsmouth - Cherbourg route.
In 1998 P&O European Ferries Dover operations and Stena Line's Dover & Newhaven operations merged and became P&O Stena Line with P&O European Ferries putting forward their Dover - Calais and Dover - Zeebrugge route vessels forward and P&O Irish Sea was formed in 1998, following the merger of the Cairnryan-based service of P&O European Ferries (Felixstowe) Ltd and Pandoro (who operated routes between England, Scotland and France to Ireland), while the Portsmouth operations remained unchanged until 1999 when it became P&O Portsmouth.
Past fleet Ship Service Route(s) Pride of Ailsa 1992-1996 Cairnryan-LarnePride of Bilbao 1993–1999 Portsmouth-BilbaoPride of Cherbourg (1) 1989–1994 Portsmouth-Le Havre/CherbourgPride of Cherbourg (2) 1994–1999 Portsmouth-CherbourgPride of Cherbourg II 1994 Portsmouth-CherbourgPride of Hampshire 1989-1999 Portsmouth-Le Havre/CherbourgPride of Le Havre (1) 1989–1994 Portsmouth-Le Havre/CherbourgPride of Le Havre (2) 1994–1999 Portsmouth-Le HavrePride of Portsmouth 1994–1999 Portsmouth-Le HavrePride of Rathlin 1992-1998 Cairnryan-LarnePride of Sandwich 1988-1992 Dover-Calais/ZeebruggePride of Walmer 1988-1992 Dover-Calais/Zeebrugge Pride of Winchester 1989–1995 Portsmouth-Le Havre/Cherbourg Superstar Express 1998–1999 Portsmouth-CherbourgJetliner 1996-1998 Cairnryan-LarnePride of Bruges 1988-1998 Dover-Calais/ZeebruggePride of Dover 1987–1998 Dover-CalaisPride of Calais 1987–1998 Dover-CalaisPride of Kent 1987–1998 Dover-Calais/Zeebrugge European Highway 1992–1998 Dover-ZeebruggeEuropean Pathway 1992–1998 Dover-ZeebruggeEuropean Seaway 1993–1998 Dover-ZeebruggePride of Burgundy 1993–1998 Dover-CalaisIonic Ferry 1987-1992 Cairnryan-LarneEuropean Endeavour 1987 - 1998 Dover - Calais/Zeebrugge Larne-Cairnryan / Felixstowe-ZeebruggeEuropic Ferry 1987-1993 Cairnryan-Larne
Routes Dover - Calais Dover - Zeebrugge Portsmouth - Le Havre Portsmouth - Cherbourg Portsmouth - Bilbao Cairnryan - Larne Felixstowe - Rotterdam (Europort) Felixstowe - Zeebrugge
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