Railways Board (BRB), but still part of the Sealink consortium. In 1979, Sealink acquired Manx Line which offered services to the Isle of Man from Heysham. On 27 July 1984 the UK Government sold Sealink UK Limited to Sea Containers for £66m. The company was renamed Sealink British Ferries. In 1991, Sea Containers sold Sealink British Ferries to Stena Line. The sale excluded the operations of Hoverspeed, the Isle of Wight services and the share in the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, as well as the Port of Heysham. The new owners rebranded the company as Sealink Stena Line, then again a few years later to Stena Sealink Line. In 1996, the Sealink name disappeared when the UK services were re-branded as Stena Line. The agreement with the SNCF on the Dover to Calais route also ended at this time and the French-run Sealink services were rebranded as SeaFrance. Livery Prior to 1964/65 the colours were black hull, white upperworks and black-topped buff funnel. From 1972/73 Sealink was displayed in white Rail Alphabet typeface on the side of the hull. The livery from 1984 to 1995 was a distinctive blue-on-white. Previously, the British Rail double arrow logo had been used, with a BR corporate monastral blue hull, white upperworks and black-topped red funnel. A reversed version of the BR symbol was used on one side of Sealink ship's funnels and flags. This was so that the 'top' arrow was always pointing towards the bow of the ship on funnels, and for flags towards the flag staff. British Rail owned ships had red funnels with a white logo. Elsewhere in Sealink the symbol was white on blue. Hovercraft In the 1960s, British Rail started hovercraft services from Dover to Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, and also across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. Rather than use the name Sealink, the services were marketed as Seaspeed and Solent Seaspeed. Seaspeed merged with rival Hoverlloyd in 1981 to form Hoverspeed. See also :Category:Ships of British Rail References Notes Bibliography External links stenaline.com Sealink Holyhead.net a guide to the history of the sea route between Holyhead and Dún Laoghaire British Rail brands British Rail ferry operations British Rail freight services British Rail passenger services British Rail subsidiaries and divisions Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom Transport companies established in 1970 Transport companies disestablished in 1984 British companies established in 1970 British companies disestablished