Belfast Harbour recently saw the arrival of the world’s largest floating bookfair store ship, which marks the third and final call to the island of Ireland this season with public tours available, writes Jehan Ashmore.
As Afloat previously noted, the former Faroe ferry Norröna of Smyril Line, which connected the North Atlantic islands mainly with Denmark, is visiting Belfast (until October 20 and closed on Mondays) at Albert Quay, Clarendon Docks (at the former downriver Stena freight berth), opposite Titanic Belfast, on the south bank of the Lagan.
It arrived at Belfast Lough on 1 October, where docked in Belfast DryDock at Harland & Wolff, Navantia UK, a subsidiary of the Spanish state shipbuilder, is the recently received cruise ship Costa Fortuna, which is undergoing a major 'revitalisation' contract which will transform the ship to be renamed Margaritaville at Sea Beachcomber. This will be the largest flagship for US operator Margaritaville at Sea.
This year Belfast Harbour marks three decades in welcoming cruise callers to the Ulster capital.
As for the Christian-led bookfair ship, it opened yesterday to public paid ticketed tours of a ‘Visitor Experience'. This immersive 60-minute tour enables meeting the crew, hearing their journeys, and learning how Logos Hope connects port communities globally through knowledge and hope. For booking visit: https://logoshope.littleboxoffice.com/browse
The volunteer crew of more than 300 and some 65 nations also included around 10 families with a school. They together serve as an international ship sharing knowledge, help and hope with people all over the world through literature, cultural understanding, relief work, and more.
In addition, the non-profit German-based organization, Operation Mobilisation (OM) also offers aid and community care to those in need by visiting hospitals, schools, orphanages, or prisons.
Good Books for All (GBA) operates and manages the ship along with smaller Doulos Hope, a smaller acquisition of recent years.
Also open to the public is the café, which forms part of the pre-season refurbishment carried out of the Logos Hope at Seville, Spain, of the veteran vessel, dating to 1973, when launched for Lion Ferry serving as the Denmark-Sweden car ferry Gustav Vasa.
It was sold to GBA and renamed Norröna to serve Smyril Line for a decade on the long-distance route linking the archipelago, an autonomous territory or ‘rigsdel’ of the Kingdom of Denmark, where the ship called at Hirtshals, in the nation's northern Jutland peninsula.
The sole surviving WWI warship of the Battle of Jutland is HMS Caroline, a C-class light battle cruiser which is preserved as a museum located downriver at Alexandra Dry Dock in the Titanic Quarter of the harbour.
Towage Relationship's
Afloat tracked Logos Hope to its last port of call, Cardiff, from where the capital port of Wales saw the ship's September stint. Also docked was the local stationed tug, VB Irishman, as reported almost a decade ago when, as the former Belfast-serving ‘Irishman’ was based at Hull, Yorkshire, downriver of its previous English owner’s homeport on the Humber when operated by SMS Towage.
SMS Towage had a fleet across the UK and operated at Belfast, the pair Masterman and Merchantman, which continue in service for the current owner, Beluga Towage, part of the Spanish Beluga Group, which gives the tugs their slightly renamed prefix nomenclature of ‘VB’ likewise of VB Irishman.
On a related note, the Irish Sea is where the Logos Hope’s next the port of call, Liverpool, as Afloat previously reported, and where the gangway on Merseyside will be open for visitors between 22 Oct-5 Nov.
Logos Hope Added Port of Call: Isle of Man Visit
What is new is that Douglas, Isle of Man (6-19 Nov.), has been added to the itinerary, which will conclude the tour of UK and Irish ports that included Dublin, followed by the Celtic Sea to Cork, also visited during the summer.
Logos Hope will leave northwest Europe and head across the Bay of Biscay bound for the Iberian Peninsula states. Where at Porto, Portugal (this has yet to be confirmed), in late Nov-early Dec, and visiting Valletta, Malta, the Mediterranean island nation, with tours in the final month of this year.
