History
Cenwulf was built in 1973 by Robb Caledon Shipbuilders Ltd in Dundee, Scotland, for Sealink Isle of Wight. The ship was named 'Cenwulf' after Coenwulf of Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon king of the Mercians from 796. Her maiden sailing was on 18 October 1973, when she replaced the 1938-built MV Lymington on the Lymington to Yarmouth route. [3]
In 1990 ownership passed to Wightlink after the privatisation of Sealink in 1984. [4]
Along with sister 'C' class ships MV Caedmon and MV Cenred operating the Lymington to Yarmouth ferry service, she was withdrawn with the introduction of the new Wight class ferries, MV Wight Light, MV Wight Sky and MV Wight Sun. [5] Laid up at Marchwood in 2009,, Cenwulf was sold for scrapping. In March 2010 she was towed to Esbjerg, Denmark. A short time later, she was broken up.
Yarmouth is a town, port and civil parish in the west of the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. The town is named for its location at the mouth of the small Western Yar river. The town grew near the river crossing, originally a ferry, which was replaced with a road bridge in 1863.
Wightlink is a ferry company operating routes across The Solent between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in the south of England. It operates car ferries between Lymington and Yarmouth, and Portsmouth and Fishbourne and a fast passenger-only catamaran between Portsmouth Harbour and Ryde Pier. The company is jointly owned by Basalt Infrastructure Partners based in the United Kingdom and Fiera Infrastructure based in Canada.
Red Funnel, the trading name of the Southampton Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Limited, is a ferry company that carries passengers, vehicles and freight on routes between the English mainland and the Isle of Wight. High-speed foot passenger catamarans, known as Red Jets, run between Southampton and Cowes, while vehicle ferries run between Southampton and East Cowes.
The Caledonian MacBrayne fleet is the largest fleet of car and passenger ferries in the United Kingdom, with 34 units in operation and another 2 under construction. The company provides lifeline services to 23 islands off the west coast of Scotland, as well as operating routes in the Firth of Clyde.
MV Wight Light is a car and passenger ferry built for the British ferry operator Wightlink. She is in service between mainland England and the Isle of Wight.
MV St Catherine is a Roll-on/roll-off car and passenger ferry. She served the Wightlink crossing from Portsmouth to Fishbourne, Isle of Wight from 1983 to 2009. In 2010, she was sold to Delcomar and renamed GB Conte.
There are currently three different ferry companies that operate vessels carrying passengers and, on certain routes, vehicles across the Solent, the stretch of sea that separates the Isle of Wight from mainland England. These are Wightlink, Red Funnel and Hovertravel.
MV St Helen was a vehicle and passenger ferry operated by Wightlink on its route from Portsmouth to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight. Due to her age, she was sold and was removed from service on 26 March 2015. She now operates in Sardinia with the name Anna Mur, operated by Delcomar, together with her sister ship GB Conte, the former MV St Catherine.
MV Wight Sky is a new design of roll-on/roll-off car and passenger ferry operating on Wightlink's Lymington to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight route.
MV Wight Sun is an Isle of Wight ferry built in 2008 for the British company Wightlink.
MV St Faith is a vehicle and passenger ferry operated by Wightlink on its route from Portsmouth to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight. As with former sister ship St Cecilia, there were plans to increase St Faith′s capacity by extending her length by 12 metres. Entering service in 1990, St Faith is the second youngest of Wightlink's 'St Class' ships, after St Clare. The name is taken from St Faith's Church, Cowes.
MV Red Osprey is a Raptor Class vehicle and passenger ferry operated by Red Funnel on their route from Southampton to East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. She was built by Ferguson Shipbuilders in Port Glasgow.
MV Caedmon was an Isle of Wight 'C' class ro-ro vehicle and passenger ferry. She operated for ten years on the Portsmouth to Fishbourne route before transferring to Wightlink's route from Lymington to Yarmouth. After 37 years of service, she was broken up in 2010.
MV Cenred was one of Wightlink's 'C' class vehicle and passenger ferries on their route from Lymington to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight.
HSC Our Lady Pamela was a high-speed catamaran ferry which operated between the Isle of Wight and mainland England. She had operated on the Wightlink Ryde Pier to Portsmouth route since 1986 under Sealink along with her now scrapped sister ship HSC Our Lady Patricia. Both ships were named after the daughters of Lord Mountbatten, who had been the Governor of the Isle of Wight.
MV Lymington is a former ro-ro ferry, built in 1938 to serve the Isle of Wight. She is Britain's earliest example of a Voith Schneider driven ferry. Renamed MV Sound of Sanda in 1974, she served Western Ferries on the Upper Clyde until 1993.
MV Loch Scavaig was a car and passenger ferry, operated until October 2013 by Western Ferries across the Firth of Clyde between Gourock and Dunoon. In 2018, Loch Scavaig was converted into a saturation dive support vessel and is now owned by Caldive.
MV Cuthred was an Isle of Wight ro-ro ferry built in 1969. From 1990 until 2009, she operated as Mira Praia in Portugal.
TSMV Brading was a passenger ferry that operated between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight between 1948 and 1986.
TSMV Southsea was a passenger ferry that operated between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight between 1948 and 1987.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
