P&O Cruises in the UK said its latest ship, Iona, would be named by a bottle of cider in a ceremony on 16 May.

Travel industry ambassador Dame Irene Hays, DBE, chair of Hays Travel, Britain’s largest independent travel agency, will be Iona’s godmother.

P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow said: “Cider has often been used throughout history for ship launches, most notably during Prohibition, and for P&O Cruises and Iona, with her many “firsts”, it is very fitting to have English apples, grown from this ancient soil and pressed in this country, for the christening.”