Brittany Ferries, the French ferry company, said it had signed a contract with the Flensburger Schiffbau shipyard in Germany for a 42,400 gross ton LNG and diesel electric powered ropax ferry.

The vessel, which will be called Honfleur and be able to carry 1,680 passengers between Portsmouth in the UK and Caen in France, will have 2,600 lane metres of vehicle deck capacity. It is due to enter service in June 2019.

Honfleur will be built at the Flensburger Schiffbau shipyard in Germany over the next two years and will be powered by LNG (liquefied natural gas).

Its four main engines will feed electric generators and two electric shaft propulsion motors with two fixed pitch efficient propellers. This propulsion arrangement in common in cruise ships, but rare in ferries that usually use direct drive with gearboxes and controllable pitch propellers.

“Honfleur will be the first passenger ship in the world to be equipped with on board cranes that allow 40 feet (ISO standard) LNG containers to be lifted into a fixed position,” Brittany Ferries said.

Flensburger already has a large ropax ferry on order from Irish Continental Group, which trade as Irish Ferries.