ANVIL POINT

To provide the United Kingdom's strategic sealift capability, a 25-year Private Finance Initiative contract was entered into with AWSR Shipping, now known as Foreland Shipping, a company set up by four British companies with shipping interests - Bibby Line, Houlder Hadley, James Fisher Plc and Andrew Weir Shipping. Like many Government contracts, the PFI for the six ships took some time to complete, and orders were eventually placed to build four vessels in Germany and two by Harland and Wolff at their Belfast shipyard. ANVIL POINT, one of the latter pair, was completed in 2003 and like her sisters has a deadweight of 13,300 tonnes. The ships are based on a standard ro/ro vehicle carrier design, with two of the class currently on commercial charters in the Baltic Sea, although they are made available to the MoD if required. All vessels are 193.0 metres in length, and can carry an assortment of military vehicles, trailers, and containers.