Spirit of Free Enterprise operated reliably and successfully on Townsend's routes from her delivery in 1980 until the company was bought by P&O in 1987.

In the same year, her identical sister ship Herald of Free Enterprise capsized while leaving Zeebrugge.

The design of the ship was not found to be at fault, and after fitting of cameras to allow monitoring of the bow doors from the bridge she continued in service.

[1] In addition to the jumboising carried out by P&O she then had a more conventionally shaped bow in place of her original clamshell doors, and an internal ramp to enable her upper car deck to be used in ports without double-deck linkspans.

This ship, Spirit of Free Enterprise sailed under a range of names on both English Channel as well as between the Greek islands.