Sealink

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = Sealink
company_
fate = Privatised 1984, resold 1991 (becoming Stena Line (UK))
foundation =
location = Great Britain and adjacent waters
industry = Maritime
key_people =
products = Sea transport
num_employees =
parent = British Transport Commission (until 1962), British Railways Board (since 1962)
subsid = British Rail
defunct =

Sealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom, operating services to France, Belgium, Netherlands, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland.

Ports served by the company included: Dover, Folkestone, Newhaven, Southampton and Harwich for services to the European continent; Holyhead, Fishguard and Stranraer for services to Ireland; services to the Channel Islands from Weymouth.

Sealink also operated the "Steamer" Passenger Ferry services on Lake Windermere in Cumbria until privatisation when these were passed to the newly reformed Windermere Iron Steamboat Company (now Windermere Lake Cruises Ltd).

History

Sealink was originally the brand name for the ferry services of British Rail which ran shipping services in the UK and Ireland. Services to France, Belgium and the Netherlands were also run by Sealink UK as part of the Sealink consortium which also used ferries owned by the French national railway, "SNCF", the Belgian Maritime Transport Authority, "Regie voor maritiem transport / Regie des transports maritimes (RMT/RTM)", the Dutch Zeeland Steamship Company and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

Historically, the shipping services were exclusively an "extension" of the railways across the English Channel and the Irish Sea in order to provide through, integrated services to Europe and Ireland. As international travel became more popular in the late 1960s and before air travel became generally affordable, the responsibility for shipping services was taken away from the British Rail Regions and in 1969 centralised in a new division - British Rail Shipping and International Services Division.

With the advent of car ferry services the old passenger-only ferries were gradually replaced by roll-on-roll-off ships catering both for motorists and rail passengers as well as road freight. However, given that now there was now competition in the form of other ferry companies offering crossings to motorists, it became necessary to market the services in a normal business fashion (as opposed to the previous almost monopolistic situation). Thus, with the other partners mentioned above, the brand name Sealink was introduced for the consortium.

As demand for international rail travel declined and the shipping business became almost exclusively dependent on passenger and freight vehicle traffic, the ferry business as was incorporated as Sealink UK Limited in 1978, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Railways Board (BRB), but still as part of the Sealink consortium.

The service was sold to Sea Containers Ltd in 1984, becoming Sealink British Ferries. In 1991 it was sold to Stena Line, becoming Sealink Stena Line, then Stena Sealink. It was finally rebranded to Stena Line in 1995.

Its livery from 1984 to 1995 was a distinctive blue-on-white. Previously, the British Rail logo had been used, with a BR corporate monastral blue hull, white upperworks and red funnel. Prior to that the colours were black hull, white upperworks, red funnel.

Logo

An inverted version of the BR symbol was used on Sealink's funnels and flags. [ [http://www.fotw.net/flags/gb_brail.html British Rail] ] This was because:
#The inverted arrows make an "S" for Sealink when in that direction.
#While railways in the UK pass right to right (i.e drive on the left), ships have to pass left to left (i.e. drive on the right), so this version was more accurate.
#On the ships' funnels the symbol was reversed on the port side but correct on the starboard side, so the 'top' arrow was always pointing towards the bow of the ship.British Rail owned ships had red funnels with a white logo. Elsewhere in the company the symbol was white on blue.

Hovercraft

In the 1960s, British Rail started hovercraft services from Dover to Calais and Boulogne, and also across the Solent. Rather than use the name Sealink, the services were marketed as "Seaspeed". Seaspeed merged with rival Hoverlloyd in 1981 to create Hoverspeed.

ee also

* SeaFrance

External links

* [http://www.sealink-holyhead.com Sealink-Holyhead.com] a guide to the history of the sea route between Holyhead and Dún Laoghaire
* [http://www.geocities.com/treiziste/heng_beached.jpgPicture of the Sealink car ferry the "MV Hengist" beached at Folkestone during the Great Storm of 1987 showing the blue-and-white livery.]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlWjjxNRCXY Express Apollon,ex Senlac,3d video]