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The MS ''Winston Churchill'' was built in 1967 by Cantieri Navali del Tirreno e Riuniti S.P.A. Riva Trigoso, Genoa, Italy.
The ''Winston Churchill'' was built as a car ferry for the 
During the following years she was used as a hotel ship for the Red Cross, housing refugees in the harbour of Copenhagen.
Later she was chartered to NATO, to perform as hotel ship for the British 'Royal Marine Commandos' 
Scandinavian Seaways
DFDS is a Danish international shipping and logistics company. It is the busiest shipping company of its kind in Northern Europe and one of the busiest in Europe. The company's name is an abbreviation of Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab (litera ...
DFDS service from Esbjerg to 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-on- ...
, and proved a very successful vessel on the route. As demand for vehicle-carrying services grew, larger vessels were required for the route and the ''Winston Churchill'' was transferred to the River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...
in 1978, for the twice-weekly service to Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
, following the arrival of the new DFDS vessel on the Harwich route. The ferry ran aground on August 27, 1979 off the Swedish coast. All 587 passengers were safely taken off.
She was eventually replaced on the Esbjerg route out of the Tyne by a new vessel, the .
During the following years she was used as a hotel ship for the Red Cross, housing refugees in the harbour of Copenhagen.
Later she was chartered to NATO, to perform as hotel ship for the British 'Royal Marine Commandos' Royal Marines
The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
during the large NATO exercise 'Cold Gose' in the north Atlantic during the winter 1986–87.
After the military exercises she went to be re-fitted for luxury cruises, at a yard on the German Kiel Canal, in early 1987. The picture with the white hull and the slant stripes in three shades of blue would be from the following years.
Then she would sail summer luxury cruises from Esbjerg, up along the Norwegian coast and into the fjords, following the old Hurtigruten trail to Northcap and back. Stops included, but were not limited to: Bergen, Andersness, Geiranger, Tromsø, Honningsvag.
Outside the summer season she would sail Esbjerg-Thorshavn and Esbjerg-Newcastle-Hamburg, on a weekly repeating schedule.
In 1995, she was moved to a new route, also from the Tyne, to IJmuiden
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IJmuiden () is a port city in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is the main town in the municipality ...
, Netherlands, which she maintained until the following year. She was badly damaged by a fire in her alternator room during a refit at Esbjerg in April 1996, and she was subsequently repaired and sold to Empress Cruise Lines, becoming the ''Mayan Empress''. She was eventually sold for scrap in India in 2004.
References
Ferries of the United Kingdom Ships built in Genoa 1967 ships {{ferry-stub