The Dutch owned and operated Norstar, along with her British-registered sister, Norland, was completed in 1974 for North Sea Ferries' Hull (King George Dock)-Rotterdam (Europoort) overnight service. She stayed on that route largely unchanged and with few deviations until the 1987 arrival of new flagships Norsea and Norsun, upon which Norstar and Norland were stretched and referbished by their original German builders before being placed on the Hull-Zeebrugge route. The 2001 arrival of new flagships Pride of Hull and Pride of Rotterdam saw the 1987 sisters take over the Zeebrugge service and the displaced Norstar and Norland were sold to SNAV of Italy becoming SNAV Campania and SNAV Sicilia respectively operating an overnight service from Naples to Sicily. The ships remain largely unchanged onboard since their 1987 refits.
NORSTAR
Top: Norstar at King George Dock in Hull in the original, rather severe, NSF livery, without even the trading name on the hull.
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e-mail: matt@hhvferry.com
Below: After being stretched in 1987, the Norstar emerged in the new two-tone blue livery, as seen in this picture. These colours remained until 1996/97. At that time, what had previously been a joint venture between P&O and Nedlloyd was taken over entirely by P&O and all the ships received P&O's standard ferry livery with operations now under the P&O North Sea Ferries name.
Below: Norstar, in P&O livery, leaves her Hull berth ahead of the waiting Norsea in August 1999.
Below: In the typical Hull scene, Norstar locks out of the King George Dock prior to really getting underway for Zeebrugge. The time-consuming exercise was eradicated on the new Pride twins, which operate from a river-side berth on the Humber, as did the previous freight twins, Norbay and Norbank.
Below: The former Norstar, as SNAV Campania, seen on a grey day at Naples in July 2003. The ship is little changed since her days on the North Sea.