Hello the Brittany. On Sunday, the historic Brittany Ferries ship made its last crossing between Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) and Portsmouth, England. After thirty-five years of service, the imposing passenger transport boat was ordered to make way for a new generation of ships. Newer, more modern, more comfortable but above all less polluting. The end of an adventure and a farewell to one of the emblems of Saint-Malo.
For this last journey towards England, the Brittany had boarded nearly 1,300 passengers. But since its entry into service in July 1989, around 13 million people have traveled on board! At the time, the Brittany was the pride of Brittany Ferries. The first new ship purchased by the company founded in 1972 to export vegetables from northern Brittany, it initially operated between Roscoff and England, also linking Plymouth to Spain. Since 1993, he had joined Saint-Malo, which remained his home port for more than thirty years.
Soon a gas and electric ship
The Brittany will not disappear from the landscape but will be sold by the shipping company based in Roscoff. To whom? For the moment, we ignore it. It will be replaced in February by the Saint-Malo, the first hybrid ship from Brittany Ferries. It is powered by a hybrid system of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and electricity and can carry nearly 1,300 passengers.
Strongly disrupted by the pandemic and Brexit, the Roscoff-based company is doing better. It transported more than two million people in 2023, for a turnover of 484.7 million euros. Employing 3,100 employees, it employs more than 2,100 crew and is the leading employer of French sailors.
