MV Caedmon

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Wightlink Caedmon.jpg
MV Caedmon
Career (UK) Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg
Name: MV Caedmon
Operator: Wightlink
Builder: Robb Caledon Shipbuilders, Dundee
Yard number: 560[1]
Launched: 3 May 1973[1]
Completed: July 1973
In service: 1973
Out of service: 2009
Identification:

MMSI Number: 235031614[2]
IMO Number: 7314888[3]

Callsign: GTHY
Fate: Scrapped May 2010
General characteristics
Class and type: Car Passenger Ferry
Tonnage: 764 GRT 175 DWT[1]
Length: 58.00 metres (190.3 ft)
Beam: 15.7 metres (51.5 ft)
Draught: 2.28 metres (7.5 ft)
Speed: 10.0 knots
Capacity: 512 passengers
58 cars

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.

History

MV Caedmon was built in 1973 for Sealink by Robb Caledon Shipbuilders Ltd in Dundee, Scotland. The ship was named 'Caedmon' after the Anglo-Saxon poet Cædmon.[4]

Caedmon served on the Portsmouth to Fishbourne route, for the first ten years of her life. For several weeks in 1979, she operated as a single-ended vessel after her prow was washed away during a storm.[5]

In 1983, on the arrival of the Saint class vessels, Caedmon transferred to the Lymington - Yarmouth route, where she joined her two sister ships, MV Cenwulf and MV Cenred.[4] All three passed to Wightlink after the privatisation of Sealink in 1984.

In 2008-09, on the introduction of three new Wight class ferries on the Lymington to Yarmouth route, all three 'C' class ships were withdrawn from service.[6] They were sold for scrapping and initially stored at Southampton, before being towed to Esbjerg, in Denmark. Cenred,Caedmon and then Cenwulf were dismantled at Smedegaarden in May 2010.[citation needed]

Layout

Facilities on board included a lounge with cafe/bar facilities, toilets and open decks. The car deck had a ramp fore and aft, allowing full ro-ro operation.

Twin engines powered Voith Schneider propellers.

Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 ""7314888"" (subscription required). Miramar Ship Index. R.B. Haworth. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz. Retrieved 12 April 2009. 
  2. "Caedmon". Vessel Tracker. http://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Ships/Caedmon-I275433.html. Retrieved 12 April 2009. 
  3. "Ship Index: C". World Shipping Register. http://e-ships.net/index/C1.shtml. Retrieved 12 April 2009. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Our fleet today - Caedmon". Wightlink. http://www.wightlink.co.uk/about-us/our-fleet-today/caedmon.aspx. Retrieved 2009-01-16. [dead link]
  5. marbow2. "IMG_0019". Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/39396449@N04/3668865582/. Retrieved 19 May 2010. 
  6. Richard Wright (17 July 2008). "New ferry makes third ship for route". Isle of Wight County Press. http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/new-ferry-makes-third-ship-for-route-21394.aspx. Retrieved 29 March 2009. 

External links