3.9 MILLION PASSENGERS, 1.1 MILLION CARS AND 15 YEARS OF LOYAL SERVICE TO THE ISLE OF MAN
10th September, 2013
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Companys vessel multi purpose vessel Ben-my-Chree has reached the grand old age of 15 years. The vessels owners estimate that during her service she has carried the equivalent of the Island’s population 45 times over and enough freight to reach from Douglas to Liverpool and back more than 20 times.
Ben My Chree (Girl of my Heart) was built at the Van der Giessen de Noord shipyard in the Netherlands, at a cost of £25 million, and made her maiden passenger-carrying voyage on 4th August 1998.
It is estimated that during her lifetime she has carried around 3.9 million passengers, 1.1 million cars, 250,000 motorcycles, and more than 100,000 vans and trade cars.
Ben-my-Chree, the sixth Steam Packet Company vessel to carry that name, has also moved 500,000 freight trailers to and from the Island and provides our regular twice daily trailer arrivals from Heysham. Apart from the occasional breakdown or force 10 gale, the vessel has been very reliable and has been an excellent servant to the Company and the Isle of Man.
