HSS 1500 was the name of a model of
Stena HSS craft developed and originally operated by
Stena Line
Stena Line is a Swedish Shipping line, shipping line company and one of the world's largest ferry operators. It services Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland and Sweden. Stena Line is a ...
on European international ferry routes. The vessels were the largest
high-speed craft
A high-speed craft (HSC) is a high-speed water vessel for civilian use, also called a fastcraft or fast ferry.
The first high-speed craft were often hydrofoils or hovercraft, but in the 1990s catamaran and monohull designs become more popu ...
in the world. Several design patents were registered to Stena Line in the development of the HSS.
Three vessels were ultimately completed in 1996 and 1997. The first of the class,
''Stena Explorer'', entered service in April 1996, serving the
Holyhead
Holyhead (; , "Cybi's fort") is a historic port town, and is the list of Anglesey towns by population, largest town and a Community (Wales), community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales. Holyhead is on Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island ...
-
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in County Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built up alongside a small existing settlement following 1816 legislation th ...
route from 1996 to 2014.
Two others had served
Stranraer
Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; ), also known as The Toon or The Cleyhole, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries ...
to
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
and
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...
to
Hook of Holland
Hook of Holland (, ) is a coastal village in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; ''hoek'' means "corner" and was in use before the word ''wikt:kaap#Dutch, kaap'' – "cape". The English translation using Hook is a false cognate of t ...
.
["Fast Ferries"]
by Ian Manser, in ''The Global Change?'', International Ports Congress 1999, page 43. Online at Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
. On the 200-kilometre Hoek–Harwich route, the Stena HSS had cut the crossing time in half by cruising at 41 knots.
Design and construction
''Stena Explorer'' was constructed by Finnyards
STX Finland Oy, formerly Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding companie ...
in Rauma
Rauma may refer to:
Places
* Rauma, Finland, a town and municipality in the Satakunta region of western Finland
* Rauma Municipality, a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway
* Rauma (river), a river in the Romsdalen valley in Møre og Ro ...
, Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
.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 ...
, and was designed with the aim of providing a comfortable and fast service.GE Aviation
General Electric Company, doing business as GE Aerospace, is an American aircraft engine supplier that is headquartered in Evendale, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. It is the legal successor to the original General Electric Company founded in 1892, wh ...
gas turbine
A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...
s in a twin COGAG
Combined gas turbine and gas turbine (COGAG) is a type of propulsion system for ships using two gas turbines connected to a single propeller shaft. A gearbox and clutches allow either of the turbines to drive the shaft or both of them combined. Ma ...
configuration.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.[ A specially designed ]linkspan
A linkspan or link-span is a type of drawbridge used mainly in the operation of moving vehicles on and off a roll-on/roll-off (RO-RO) vessel or ferry, particularly to allow for tidal changes in water level.
Linkspans are usually found at ferry t ...
for the Stena HSS provides ropeless mooring and allows quick loading, unloading and servicing. Vehicles are loaded via two of the four stern doors and park in a "U" configuration. When disembarking, vehicles drive straight off via the other two doors.
Ships
* ''Stena Explorer'' (now: ''One World Karadeniz'') - Sold for use as office space in Turkey
* ''Stena Voyager'' - scrapped in Sweden
* ''Stena Discovery'' (later: ''HSS Discovery'') - scrapped in Turkey
References
{{Reflist
High-speed craft
Ships built in Rauma, Finland