| P&O Stena: The end |
| BELOW: Sealink/Stena devotees should avert their eyes now! The pride of the Sealink British Ferries' fleet at the time of the original sale to Stena now operates under the name of the old opposition, P&O. No direct mention of Stena (let alone Sealink) can now be seen on the sides of P&OSL Canterbury (ex-Fantasia). The close-up of the starboard funnel demonstrates that the Stena half of the twin flag logo has merely been unconvincingly painted out. |
| BELOW: Seven of the P&O Stena fleet were originally P&O European Ferries ships. From left to right, row-by-row: P&OSL Burgundy, P&OSL Calais, P&OSL Dover, P&OSL Kent, European Highway, European Seaway. European Pathway managed to avoid photography on September 1st. |
| BELOW: (Left) The one-time Belgian Prins Filip is now the P&OSL Aquitaine, but is actually owned by a company within the Stena group and chartered to P&O Stena. (Right) Built just up the coast from Calais in Dunkerque - territory now ceded to Norfolk Line - P&OSL Provence had a pure Stena pedigree as the sometime Swedish and then British local flagship Stena Jutlandica and latterly Stena Empereur, but is now a P&O ship. |
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| ABOVE: The final version of the full P&O Stena livery, as worn by P&OSL Dover in July 2002, included POSL.com web branding, a small version of the full logo including titles on the forward superstructure, the twin-flag emblem on the funnel and P&O Stena name on the hull. |
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| ABOVE: Before and after: P&OSL Aquitaine. P&O acquired Stena's 40% share in the P&O Stena Line joint venture in early August, giving them total control of the business. Whilst the company will continue to trade officially under the current name for the remainder of 2002, P&O have wasted little time in removing Stena references where possible, most noticeably on the exteriors of the ships themselves. As seen above, the Stena 'S' flag has been painted out of the old twin-flag logo whilst the Stena name has disappeared from the hulls. Meanwhile the P&O houseflag alone can now be seen flying from the mast forward. |
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| BELOW: One of the remaining questions for P&O to resolve was that of renaming the passenger fleet. The P&OSL... prefix obviously needed to be changed, and whilst a simple return to Pride of... names turned out to be the answer, one lifebelt aboard P&OSL Aquitaine (pictured on September 1, 2002) appeared to have different ideas... |
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| P&O Stena: The fleet in the modified livery (click on the pictures for larger images) |
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| e-mail: matt@hhvferry.com |