I certainly am not getting all sentimental about the demise of "Pride of Dover" She was built to an enlarged development of the Townsend Thoresen "Spirit of Free Enterprise" design which, with only a small amount of open deck space aft, was cunningly meant to keep the passengers inside, spending money in the shops, restaurants, bars and gaming arcades, instead of sitting outside in the fresh air and/or sunshine. I am sure there would have been many more survivors from the "Herald" disaster but for this layout. I certainly tried to avoid travelling on these ships - especially since they also offered very limited scope for shipspotting/photography. You could only see where you'd been; not where you were going!
Furthermore, the ship served for nearly 25 years on the Dover-Calais service. The machinery on she and her sister was pretty knackered (as evidenced by the major failure that is rumoured to have taken place en route to lay-up and the amount of cannibalisation that is reported to have taken place to keep "Pride of Calais" going until the second, new "jumbo" was delivered.
As much as I love ships, they are - after all - just machines and as such eventually become "clapped-out", like the "Pride of Dover".
And even furthermore: Dover-Calais ferries have always been a bit more difficult to resell because of their "non-standard" loading arrangements, which usually requires them to have ramp/doors fitted for service elsewhere.
If you think space on the Pride of Dover was limited, you should sail on the Prides of Canterbury / Kent / Burgundy or the new Spirits, they are even worse! As a passenger, I always found these ships were the best to sail on as they didn't feel as crowded on a busy sailing as the newer tonnage and there were nice hidden spots like the semi-enclosed decks either side on deck 6 that almost no passenger visited.
You are spot on about their re-sale possibility though. Ships like these are very hard to sell and are getting more and more purpose built. Earlier Dover tonnage somehow find a second life in Greece in the past but these are hardly suitable for that. I suspect in 5 to 10 years, we will see the same thing with the Pride of Burgundy / Canterbury / Kent. These probably won't have a second life either, unless someone like Trans Europa Ferries can snatch them. The European Seaway will most likely find a second home as she is a freighter.
It will be sad to see pictures of the Pride of Dover on the beach. She was the first ship I sailed on when I was 5.
Either fighter is now only about a mile from land
Kind regards
Cedric
