HSC ''Cecilia Payne'' is a high-speed ferry owned and operated by

Baleària Baleària is the trading name for the Spanish shipping company Baleària Eurolíneas Marítimas S.A. The company operates passenger ferry services in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Routes In the Mediterranean region, Baleària operates d ...

. The vessel operates between

Ciutadella de Menorca Ciutadella de Menorca () or simply Ciutadella is a town and a municipalities of Spain, municipality in the western end of Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands (Spain). It is one of the two primary cities in the island, along with Maó. History ...

and Alcudia. The vessel is named after British–American astrophysicist Cecilia Payne. Between 1999 and 2018 she was operated by Irish Ferries as ''Jonathan Swift''.

Design and construction

''Cecilia Payne'' was constructed by Austal Ships in Henderson,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, at a cost

IR£ The pound ( Irish: ) was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the symbol was £ (or £Ir for distinction.) The Irish pound was replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin circulation until ...

29million. The vessel was launched in February 1999 and was delivered to Dublin in May 1999, before entering service in July 1999. The vessel is of a

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

design. Power is provided by four

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

3618

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s with a total output of 28,800 kW. The vessel employs four

Kamewa AB Karlstads Mekaniska Werkstad (''trans.'' Karlstad Mechanical Works Ltd), known as Kamewa, was a Swedish manufacturing company in the city of Kristinehamn. Kamewa started as a brand name of the controllable-pitch propellers manufactured by KM ...

waterjets for propulsion and has a service speed of 40

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(75 km/h). ''Jonathan Swift'' was designed to allow quick turnarounds at port. It is equipped with a bow door which allows vehicles to drive on at either end and drive straight off at the end of the journey. The vessel was able to use existing terminal facilities in both ports.

Service

Irish Ferries

The introduction of ''Jonathan Swift'' was delayed due to an industrial dispute between Irish Ferries and the trade union

SIPTU SIPTU (; ''Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union''; ) is Ireland's largest trade union, with around 200,000 members. Most of these members are in the Republic of Ireland, although the union does have a Northern Ireland District ...

, who represented seven officers that had been transferred from the company's conventional ferry operations to man the new high-speed ferry. These officers refused to operate the vessel at lower manning levels which had been proposed by Irish Ferries. Irish Ferries threatened to sell or charter ''Jonathan Swift'' if the issue was not resolved. On its entry into service in July 1999, ''Jonathan Swift'' increased Irish Ferries' passenger capacity on the Dublin-Holyhead route by 73%, and its car capacity by 50%. The vessel has spent its entire career on this route, operating alongside the company's conventional ferries.

Balearia

On 30 January 2018,

Irish Continental Group Irish Continental Group plc is an Irish shipping and transport group. Operating roll on/roll off passenger, freight and container freight services on routes between Ireland, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Irish Continental Group a ...

announced that ''Jonathan Swift'' was to be sold to Balearia Eurolineas Maritimas S.A ( Balearia) for a sum of €15.5m plus fees. The vessel was scheduled to be delivered to Balearia by the end of April 2018, in April 2018 it was renamed ''Cecilia Payne''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cecilia Payne Ferries of the United Kingdom 1999 ships Ferries of Wales High-speed craft Individual catamarans