Princess Seaways

Princess Seaways leaving IJmuiden at the 20th of march 2011.

Princess Seaways was built at the Seebeckwerft at Bremerhaven in Western Germany and was launched on the 30th of november 1985. Untill then, the ship had been yardnumber 1058 but now she was named Peter Pan for the Trelleborg to Travemunde service by TT Line. The ship was one of the largest ferries in the world when she debuted, measuring some 31.356 tons. Her lenght is 161,53 meters and she is 28,20 meters wide. The ship was designed for 1320 passengers in cabins, 425 deckpassengers and 200 crew, besides 4100 lane-meters on her cardecks available to some 550 cars. The ferry is one of a class of four built in the mid-eighties for TT Line and their subsidary Olau Line. For some details, see the page dedicated to her sister King Seaways. Peter Pan was delivered to TT Line at the 30th of may 1986, sailing her first service at the following 2nd of june. In september 1993, the ferry departed for a long journey south when she was transferred to the TT Line subsidary Transport Tasmania (also TT) for service from Davonport, Tasmania to Melbourne, Australia. For this service, she was renamed Spirit Of Tasmania. The former Baltic ferry kept sailing this route untill the 7th of september 2002 when she was laid up at Sydney and was offered for sale.  

Fjord Line bought the ship the following december and at the 22nd of december 2002 she sailed from Sydney to Frederikshavn where she arrived at the 28th of january. For this voyage, the ships name was shortened to just Spir. At the Orskov Staalskibsvaerft the ship was rebuilt for service with 1279 passengers in cabins and 98 deckpassengers and she was named Fjord Norway at the 9th of april 2003. The Fjord Norway sailed the route between Bergen, Egernsund and Hantsholm in Norway untill november 2005, when this route was extended from Bergen to Newcastle, Engeland.

As Princess Of Norway, the ship sailed the route from IJmuiden between 2007 and 2011. She is seen here just after she left the terminal in IJmuiden harbour at the 2nd of may 2008.

Fjord Line filed for bankrupcy at the 6th of september 2006, and the ship and route were taken over by DFDS Seaways from the 16th of october onwards. The Fjord name dissappeared and the ship was renamed Princess Of Norway, so she was not entirely renamed in the usual DFDS Seaways naming style, where ship names ended at 'Of Scandinavia.' In may 2007, Princess Of Norway was placed at the service between IJmuiden and Newcastle, trading places with the Queen Of Scandinavia, that took over the route to Norway. Strangely, Princess Of Norway was not renamed, although she did not sail from Norway anymore. Also the Queen Of Scandinavia kept her own name. This movement of ships was done, because now the Princess Of Norway would sail as a partner to the King Of Scandinavia, her former fleetmate and sistership of TT Line. At that time, King Of Scandinavia sailed as Nils Holgersson. DFDS Seaways now had the opportunity to sail the IJmuiden to Newcastle route with two ships with equal capacity.

On the 6th of february 2011, Princess Of Norway was send to Odense, Denmark to be fitted in the new colouringsceme of DFDS Seaways after the aquisition of Norfolk Line and the rebranding of the ships. She re-emerged as the Princess Seaways at the route sailing from the 26th of february onwards. Because a fire had broken out inside her funnel during her refitting at the 17th of february, she was delayed by several days and two sailings had to be cancelled.

Princess Seaways in evening sun between the pierheads of IJmuiden, leaving for Newcastle at the 20th of march 2011.

DFDS is not just a company doing their normal day-to-day business, they also tend to care for the communities they work in. On the 30th of november 2013, DFDS opened Princess Seaways for people connected to the Foodbanks in Haarlem, Velsen and IJmond-Noord, three communities and towns close to the port of IJmuiden. These Foodbanks offer food for very low prices to families that can hardly make a living. In total 350 people were invited aboard for the afternoon for the celebrations of the traditional Sinterklaas festivities. At Sinterklaas, children are given presents by a bearded good-fellow coming from Spain, based on Saint Nicolas. To help several poor families, DFDS offered some help to Sinterklaas by providing a great party for those people, where a lunch and a concert by Dutch hiphop-artist Yes-R were offered to them and of course Sinterklaas was there too. All children were given a small present when they left home. It is not uncommon to DFDS to organize these kind of events. In the homeport of Copenhagen in Denmark, a lunch for homeless people is organized every year at the companies headoffices during Christmas to do something back for the community there.