Stena Hibernia is to finally make its debut on the Dublin-Birkenhead (Liverpool) freight route as the Ireland-UK’s second ship with a sailing tonight (17 Dec), writes Jehan Ashmore.
The 1,710-deck freight lane capacity Stena Line ro-ro ferry was delayed on entering the Liffey-Merseyside link, which was understood to have been scheduled for last Saturday. Since then all sailings have been cancelled. Afloat has sought a response from Stena, but so far they have not replied at the time of writing.
Its addition will boost capacity to the central corridor connection, which the chartered Bore Song has been making since February, though the route was launched almost two years ago following the closing of P&O operations but is based at Liverpool Docks.
With that long-established operator no longer on the route, CLdN having acquired Seatruck Ferries in recent years and this year adding larger tonnage, Stena has been monitoring the important Ireland-UK trade link to gauge levels of demand from freight hauliers.
It is only now that Stena has caught up by addressing their freight capacity, which will benefit hauliers too.
Afloat had tracked Stena Hibernia at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, from where it was under routine dry-dock maintenance. Upon completion of dry-docking, Stena Hibernia made the short passage to Liverpool Docks, but this was brief, as on Wednesday (last week) the former Heysham-Belfast route vessel recently returned to the latter port.
Its route involved circling offshore of North Wales before continuing a passage to the west of the Isle of Man to reach Belfast.
Since then the Stena Hibernia had berthed at the port’s Victoria 4 (V4) terminal until the freighter was off again, but initially only to circle off Bangor, Co. Down. It would appear the vessel was carrying out further post-dry-docking maneuvers.
Yesterday afternoon, Stena Hibernia left the familiar waters of Belfast Lough to make a repositioning passage through the Irish Sea and was observed entering Dublin Port in the afternoon. Not surprisingly, the ship fresh from refit was resplendent in its Stena ‘freight’ livery of a dark blue hull.
The ship remained in port but had to vacate Terminal 4’s berth 52 for the arrival of Bore Song to enable unloading and loading for the early hours of overnight sailing to England. This led the newcomer in the early hours to anchor in Dublin Bay.
Its anchorage took place in proximity to Arklow Shipping’s aging, dry-cargo, Irish-flagged Arklow Raven, one of just two from a 16-strong ‘R’ class series built between 2002 and 2017, as Afloat has documented in recent years.
By coincidence the presence of another ASL cargoship also took place with Afloat’s photo of the Stena twin freighter, Stena Scotia, taken in 2012 when the ro-ro made a one-off stint out of Dublin but served Holyhead. This photo features in recent coverage on the Dublin-Birkenhead route and that of the former Maersk and DFDS Seaways vessel, which also operated its twin but named it Hibernia Seaways.
When Stena acquired DFDS Irish operations, the 1996-built vessel was simply renamed Stena Hibernia. This is the second ship to bear the time name, as it follows the Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead ferry St. Columba, which Stena renamed in 1991 in recognition of its link to Ireland but also as a homage to the former ‘mailboat’ Hibernia until it was replaced by a car ferry.
This first Stena Hibernia remained with the company, including its final spell of service, but as the renamed Stena Adventurer and still on the Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead route, it was withdrawn with the advent of the high-speed service (HSS) craft Stena Explorer.
As the HSS replaced the Stena Adventurer, which headed for Belfast to layover before being sold overseas, those familiar with the Irish Sea ferry scene will realize the same name continues with the much larger cruise ferry but on the Dublin-Holyhead route.
