A debate arising from a Scottish west coast island ferry has sparked an online response after the operator Calmac's largest ferry was ‘forced to perform a U-turn’ to allow a cruise ship to berth.
The incident, writes The Herald, took place last week on June 24 at the entrance to Stornoway Harbour, on the Isle of Lewis and Harris. In the spring a new £59 million deep water terminal opened to permit such larger ships to dock; the first to use the facility was Ambition, as Afloat reported which aftwerwards went on to Belfast and Cobh in Cork Harbour.
Last week’s incident involved CalMac’s 2014-built MV Loch Seaforth, which serves the Stornoway-Ullapool route on the 2-hour, 45-minute route, and the 291-metre-long ‘Vista’ class cruise ship MS Zuiderdam operated by Holland America Line. The ferry takes 700 passengers, whereas the cruise ship can accommodate more than 2,200 guests.
Following the incident, an islander in a Facebook post argued that the ferry “should have had priority” over the cruise ship, which was docking at Arnish (Afloat adds is where the Harland & Wolff Group have a shipyard), given that the ferry “runs to a tight schedule.”.
The argument was reinforced by a worker at Scrabster Harbour in the north of mainland Scotland, who added to the debate by saying that the (NorthLink ferry) MV Hamnavoe, which sails on the Scrabster-Stromness in Orkney, “always has the right of passage... the ferry timetable cannot be interrupted.”.
Another person questioned why “regularly scheduled, vital public transportation” needs to “move aside for rich people on an enormous polluting ship.”.
In contrast, a third contested that “as a basic point of seamanship, a smaller vessel has no 'right of way' in a channel out of which a bigger ship cannot safely maneuver”, while a fourth suggested that “the law of gross tonnage always wins”.
More on the story here, in addition to further online comments and a response from a CalMac spokesperson, which were confirmed to the newspaper.
