the title of 'world's largest ferry'. Norsea and Norsun were refitted and returned to P&O North Sea Ferries on the Hull–Zeebrugge route as Pride of York and Pride of Bruges. Following P&O's acquisition of P&O Stena Line in 2002, P&O North Sea Ferries was merged and rebranded with P&O's Portsmouth and Dover operations under the current P&O Ferries Ltd name. P&O Ferries host many themed minicruises on the Hull to Rotterdam route. These include the now traditional 'Hulloween' minicruise on 28 October and music minicruises with 50s and 60s music. Irish Sea In 1971 P&O purchased the remains of Coast Lines which had been operating in the Irish Sea since 1913. In December 1974, P&O founded Pandoro Ltd to provide transport operations to Ireland. A number of different routes were started and ceased operating as the 'Troubles' affected the car/passenger market to Northern Ireland. In 1993 Pandoro added a service operating between Rosslare, Ireland, and Cherbourg, France, to its Ardrossan–Larne, Liverpool–Dublin and Fleetwood–Dublin routes. P&O Irish Sea was formed in 1998, following the merger of the Cairnryan-based service of P&O European Ferries (Felixstowe) Ltd and Pandoro Ltd (who operated routes between England, Scotland and France to Ireland). The following year (1999), the new P&O Irish Sea announced its intentions to purchase a purpose-built Ro-Pax (roll-on, roll-off, vehicle/passenger) vessel from Mitsubishi of Japan for the Liverpool to Dublin route. This would see the transfer of European Leader (ex Buffalo) back to the Fleetwood route. In 2004, P&O closed its Fleetwood – Larne services with the sale of all interests. In addition to the service rights, European Leader, European Pioneer and European Seafarer were sold to the Swedish Stena Line group. At the same time, P&O announced the closure of the Mostyn – Dublin service due to low passenger numbers. This led to the sale of European Ambassador and European Envoy'' for further service in Europe. In 2010, P&O Irish Sea was absorbed back into the parent company. In January 2016, it was announced that the seasonal Troon to Larne service would cease with immediate effect due to the unprofitability of the route. The service had ended for the 2015 season in September of that year. Present fleet Former fleet Future fleet Routes P&O Ferries has operated the following routes: Passenger / freight routes Ardrossan–Larne (1970–2001) – transferred to Troon Dover–Calais – operated by Townsend Thoresen until 1987 Dover–Boulogne (1965–1993) Dover–Zeebrugge (1987–1991)