P&O ヨーロピアンフェリーズ
| 社名英語 Company name English | P&O European Ferries |
| 社名日本語 Company name Japanese | P&O ヨーロピアンフェリーズ |
| 設立 Established | 1987 |
| 1998 子会社化 / Take control over |
P&O ステナライン P&O Stena Line |
P&O European Ferries社はTownsend Thoresen社運行の Herald of Free Enterprise の転覆沈没事故後、Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company社に買収されて誕生。 これを機にすべてのTownsend Thoreen社は船体デザインが変更され、船体とファンネルは紺に変更された。1993年、P&O社は旧OlymbiaをPride of Bilbaoと改名し新設のPortsmouthとBillbao航路に投入。1994年にはOlau Lineが運行停止を受けて同社の運行していたOlau BritaninaとOlau Hollandiaをチャーター、それぞれPride of PortsmouthとPride of Le Havreと改名して運行された。このとき、旧Pride of Le HavreはPride of Cherborgと改名され、旧Pride of Cherborgに替わりPortsmouth - Chebourg航路に就航。1998年、P&O European Ferry社のDover航路とStena Line社のDoverおよびNewhaven航路は統合されP&O Stena line社運行となり、P&O European社のCairnrvan航路とPandoro社の英国、スコットランド、フランス、アイルランド航路の統合に合わせてP&O Irish Seaが設立された。1999年Portsmouth航路はP&O Portsmouth社による運行となった。(Wikipediaより)
P&O European Ferries was formed after the Townsend Thoresen ship, Herald of Free Enterprise, capsized outside Zeebrugge in 1987. P&O owned the whole of European Group who marketed their ferry services as Townsend Thoresen. After the bad publicity that the Zeebrugge disaster brought to the brand P&O quickly rebranded Townsend Thoresen as P&O European Ferries with all of the former TT fleet, all of the vessels received the Blue P&O hull and blue funnel.
In 1993 P&O launched a new Portsmouth to Bilbao route using the former Olympia and renamed her the Pride of Bilbao. In 1994 when Olau Line ceased operations the 2 German built superferries Olau Britannia and Olau Hollandia were chartered to P&O and they were both renamed the Pride of Portsmouth and the Pride of Le Havre respectively. The new Pride of Le Havre replaced the first ship of that name which was renamed Pride of Cherbourg and replaced the original Pride of Cherbourg on the Portsmouth - Cherbourg route.
In 1998 P&O European Ferries Dover operations and Stena Line's Dover & Newhaven operations merged and became P&O Stena Line with P&O European Ferries putting forward their Dover - Calais and Dover - Zeebrugge route vessels forward and P&O Irish Sea was formed in 1998, following the merger of the Cairnryan-based service of P&O European Ferries (Felixstowe) Ltd and Pandoro (who operated routes between England, Scotland and France to Ireland), while the Portsmouth operations remained unchanged until 1999 when it became P&O Portsmouth. (from Wikipedia)