NorthLink Ferries is to host two on-board press receptions to mark the launch of a revised and updated history of the North Boats.

The receptions on board the NorthLink ro-ro vessels MV Hamnavoe and MV Hrossey in Stromness (April 9) and Lerwick (April 12) will celebrate the publication of “Passage to the Northern Isles: Ferry Services to Orkney and Shetland 1790 – 2010” by the Isle of Man specialist publishing house Ferry Publications.

The new 96-page book is a revised and updated version of The North Boats by the late Alastair McRobb. The McRobb book was always reckoned to be the most comprehensive account of ferry activity to and from the Northern Isles.

This new edition, compiled by Miles Cowsill and Colin Smith, takes as its starting point the definitive McRobb edition but is brought completely up to date with many of the sections revised and with the addition of many previously unpublished photographs.

Co-author Miles Cowsill, managing director of Lily Publications and its sister company Ferry Publications which specialises in maritime popular literature, said: “The history of ferry services from the Scottish mainland to the Northern Isles stretches back to the 18th century.

“This new edition of the history of the North Boats has been completely revamped, re-packaged and brought bang up to date. We hope to give the reader an insight into ferry travel from bygone days and bring them right up to modern times through the P&O Scottish Ferries era and on to the service as it exists today with NorthLink,” he said.

NorthLink chief executive Bill Davidson added: “The lifeline ferry services provided to the Orkney and Shetland islanders represent the very heartbeat of the communities which they serve.

“The ferry services are very important to the people of Orkney and Shetland and it’s important, too, that the history and traditions of these services – now over two centuries old – are documented in an accessible and readable manner. This new account of over two hundred years of ferry operations does just that and I’m sure will find favour with islanders and also ferry enthusiasts worldwide.”