|
19 January, 2010
NORTHERN isles ferry operators NorthLink has announced the
name of their new freight vessel after a competition, which
saw 183 entries from across the globe.
Shetland girl Sophie Wishart was named the winner, being one
of 20 people who picked the name Hildasay, an
uninhabited island off Shetland’s west coast.
The 12 year old, from Ocraquoy, near Cunningsburgh, said she
chose the name because of its local associations; it began
with same letter as NorthLink’s other ships and had the same
number of syllables as Hascosay, the name of the
aging boat it will replace.
Sophie, an accomplished piano and fiddle player who is
Shetland’s current Junior Musician of the Year, will take
centre stage at the naming ceremony at Lerwick’s Holmsgarth
ferry terminal, on 10 February. She also wins the prize of
four return trips with cabin for two plus car with
NorthLink.
She said: “My dad John works as a maintenance joiner with
the Lerwick Port Authority and he sees the NorthLink boats
virtually every day. We saw that the company had organised a
competition to name the new freight boat and dad suggested
that I should put in an entry.
“My younger sister, Kirsty, and I got out the maps and had a
look at all of the peerie islands around the Shetland
mainland to see |
if there was anything
which would be a fit for a freight boat. We had to get the
name starting with an ‘H’.
“We saw Hildasay and thought it would be perfect. I
was amazed when I got the phone call saying that I had won.
But what a great surprise and I’m really looking forward to
the naming ceremony in Lerwick.”
Hildasay, previously named the Shield, is
being time-chartered from owners Seatruck Ferries of Heysham.
She was built in Spain in 1999 and is expected to be better
able to maintain a reliable service than the 38 year old
Hascosay, which was too small to meet growing demand,
especially during the livestock season.
NorthLink commercial director Cynthia Spencer said: “The
response from islanders was terrific, but it wasn’t just
islanders who entered the competition. We had entries from
as far afield as New York, Poland, Greece, Finland, Sweden
and from all over the UK.”
Hildasay, thought to take its name from an Old Norse
war goddess or to mean Battle Island, was the most
frequently suggested name. The next most popular was Havra,
another island off the Shetland mainland, which was selected
by eight entrants. Other popular names included Hermaness,
Hjalmarr, Hoy and Hraustr.
The company said the time-charter arrangement, identical to
that currently in place with NorthLink’s other dedicated
freight vessel Clare, is an industry-standard
practice and represents a value for money option for the
chartering company as the owner continues to assume
financial responsibility for all ship-related costs such as
maintenance and repairs as well as crewing.
Assurances have been given to the 40 crew members on
Hascosay that they will be retained and redeployed on
the company’s other vessels. |
