MS GNV Antares, originally the MS Norsun and then MS Pride of Bruges, is a ship operated by Grandi Navi Veloci.
The ship was built by Nippon Kokan K.K. Tsurumi Yard in Yokohama, Japan. The keel was laid in 1985 and was launched in 1986. Upon completion, the ship entered service in 1987 for North Sea Ferries, then a joint-venture between Dutch Nedlloyd and British P&O. The first years it sailed on the Rotterdam-Hull route with sister ship Norsea, replacing Norstar and Norland. The Norsun sailed under the Dutch flag and was owned by the Dutch half of the joint-venture, while the Norsea was British.
In 1996 ownership transferred to P&O Ferries when Nedlloyd sold its 50% stake to P&O. The ships sailed the Rotterdam route until 2001 when they were replaced by the and the .
In 2002 the ships were transferred to the Zeebrugge-Hull route,[1] again replacing Norstar and Norland. Both ships were internally modernised before entering service on this new route. Norsun was renamed Pride of Bruges, her sister ship becoming Pride of York
In October 2016 it was announced that the two ships would be refitted.[2]
In October 2020, P&O announced that Pride of Bruges and Pride of York were to be taken out of service due to the decline in traffic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. On 15 December 2020, P&O announced on Twitter that the service would be stopped from 1 January 2021.[3] Both Pride of Bruges and sister ship Pride of York were sold to Grandi Navi Veloci.[4]
Pride of Bruges docked at terminal 2, King George Dock, Hull. Just a few hundred yards away is the terminal for the Hull-Rotterdam ferries. To leave Hull the ship had to squeeze through the lock bow first which only has a few centimetres of clearance on each side. To come back to dock in Hull, she passed through the lock bow first before she had to turn clockwise and reverse into the dock.
Zeebrugge was much easier to dock at compared to Hull. The ship simply sailed into Zeebrugge harbour, turned to starboard into a docking area just south of Albert-II Dok and backed into the berth, opening her stern door on the linkspan. [5]
The Pride of Bruges featured in Episode Three of the BBC Documentary Engineering Giants: Ferry Strip-Down, first broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday 29 July 2012. Her sister ship, MS Pride of York, was also shown.[6]