The post you are reporting:
These are certainly drastic cuts but make eminent sense in the current climate. SeaFrance will retain the three modern vessels, Rodin, Berlioz and Moliere. The latter was a somewhat curious purchase in view of their disastrous financial situation, nor is she well-suited to the Dover-Calais run.
The ones which will go are the Cezanne, Renoir and Nord Pas de Calais (NPC). Cezanne is truly ancient and has been run into the ground. Renoir is small and old and was only being retained as standby for refits. NPC is twenty years old and has been an invaluable freight ferry but the declining freight traffic can be handled by the three ships being retained.
The Channel Tunnel fire gave SeaFrance a brief boost as they carried the lions share of the freight which transferred to Dover-Calais. P&O could not take full advantage as they are still a ship down, with Pride of Canterbury still out of service after her encounter with a wreck in the Downs.
With the tunnel back to normal, the true state of the freight market has been revealed. SeaFrance carried 23% less freight in January 2009 than they did in January 2008 and things look bleak for a long time to come.
Signs are that there will be no industrial action as the unions recognise that this could well spell curtains for SeaFrance, but time will tell.
On the positive side, the first metal for the two new P&O ferries will be cut next month. They will be a similar configuration to the three Maersk vessels, with two full headroom cardecks for freight and everything else, and a low headroom cardeck above for cars only.
Also the Pride of Canterbury should shortly be returning to service after a year away. She lost her port propeller and suffered major damage to the shaft. As this is complex controllable-pitch gear, it has taken a long time to manufacture a replacement. When this was finally finished, she was found to have damage to the associated gearbox. From shards of metal discovered, this is suspected to having been due to somebody leaving a spanner in the works!
