MV Leif Ericson
 Leif Ericson | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry | |
| Builder | Fosen Yard, Rissa Municipality, Norway |
| Yard number | 50 |
| Laid down | 13 March 1990[1] |
| Launched | 4 October 1990[1] |
| Completed | 1 May 1991[1] |
| Identification |
|
| Status | In service |
| General characteristics [1][2] | |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | |
| Beam | 24.3 m (79 ft 9 in) |
| Draught | 7.9 m (25 ft 11 in) |
| Depth | 13.2 m (43 ft 4 in) |
| Ice class | DNV ICE-1B |
| Installed power | 2 × Sulzer 8 ZAL40S diesels |
| Propulsion | 2 × controllable pitch propellers |
| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Capacity |
|
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MV Leif Ericson is a commercial passenger/vehicle ferry in service with the Canadian operator Marine Atlantic. She is currently the oldest vessel in the Marine Atlantic fleet. She was built along with two sister ships by the Fosen Yard, Norway in the early 1990s. These two are Oslofjord and Patria Seaways. She also has two half sisters in Gryf and Lider Express. Leif Ericson and Patria Seaways were originally owned by the Swedish Company Stena Line as their Stena Challenger and Stena Traveller respectively.
Vessel specifications
The vessel has a capacity of 500 passengers and 300 passenger vehicles (combination of automobiles and tractor trailers). She usually operates carrying commercial vehicles only on the North Sydney–Port aux Basques route. Passenger traffic on the North Sydney-Port aux Basques route is usually handled by Blue Puttees and Highlanders year-round, and Ala'suinu services the North Sydney–Argentia route three times per week from mid-June to late-September.
Stena
The vessel was built at Fosen Yard, Norway in 1990 as Stena Challenger for Stena Line.[3] She originally operated across the English Channel between Dover, England, and Calais, France, and also operated for a while in freight only mode on Sealink Stena Line's roll-on/roll-off freight service to Dunkirk alongside SNCF's train ferry Nord-pas-de-Calais.[4] On 19 September 1995 Stena Challenger ran aground on Blériot Plage whilst waiting to enter the port of Calais.[5]
Marine Atlantic
The vessel was purchased by the Government of Canada for its Crown corporation Marine Atlantic in 2001 and underwent modifications in preparation for operating the 178-kilometre (111 mi) route between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques, Newfoundland & Labrador. She was renamed Leif Ericson in honour of the 1,000th anniversary of Leif Ericson's settlement in Newfoundland, reportedly the first European to set foot in the New World.
On 26 October 2006 Leif Ericson collided with a concrete structure at Port aux Basques after losing power.[6]
In June 2010, Marine Atlantic announced an extensive midlife refit of approximately $18 million over the next twelve months for Leif Ericson.[7]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Leif Ericson (16855)". Vessel Register for DNV. DNV. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ↑ "Marine Atlantic". Archived from the original on 3 March 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
- ↑ Significant Ships of 1995. Royal Institution of Naval Architects. p. 93. ISBN 0 903055 21 X.
- ↑ Challenger takes to the sea lanes Commercial Motor 11 July 1991
- ↑ Investigation into the grounding of the Passenger Ro-Ro Ferry Stena Challenger (PDF) (Report). London: Marine Accident Investigation Branch. 1996. ISBN 0-11-5518460. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
- ↑ "Marine Atlantic ferry loses power, hits barrier". CBC News. 26 October 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
- ↑ "Government of Canada Invests Over Half a Billion Dollars in the Revitalization of Marine Atlantic Inc" (PDF). Government of Canada. 5 July 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 November 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
External links
Media related to IMO 8917388 at Wikimedia Commons