Photographs © John H. Luxton 2007

HSS STENA DISCOVERY  she may be the youngest of the four HSS1500 vessels but she has also proved to be the first to be withdrawn from service. Completed in 1997 for operating on the Harwich - Hoek service she has been laid up at Harland & Wolff, Belfast since late January 2007.

Her paint work looks very shabby. She may have been billed as the future of sea travel but tomorrow certainly doesn't belong to HSS STENA DISCOVERY but large conventional ro/pax ships. One just wonders how much longer before she will be joined by her sisters HSS STENA VOYAGER & HSS STENA EXPLORER.