THE Daily Echo's campaign to increase the number of merchant ships flying the Red Ensign is to receive a huge boost from deputy prime minister John Prescott.

Mr Prescott will visit the city tomorrow to raise the Red Duster on P&O's massive container ship Peninsular Bay, bringing the vessel back into the British merchant marine.

Peninsular Bay is one of the first ships in the P&O fleet to be re-flagged following the government's announcement of plans to introduce a new tonnage tax which is expected to lead to a renaissance in the UK maritime sector.

The Daily Echo has been in the forefront of the campaign to urge shipping lines to re-instate the traditional Red Duster resulting in many more ships flying the flag and creating more jobs in the maritime industry.

Lord Sterling, chairman of P&O, who has already vowed to bring at least 50 of the company's vessels back under the Red Ensign because of the tonnage tax, will be with Mr Prescott for the ceremony.

After the flag raising, Mr Prescott will move on to P&O Cruises' liner Arcadia to launch the British Shipping Careers Group in the Solent area.

This new organisation, the first of its kind in the country, has been inaugurated to promote the importance of seafaring as a career to students and school-leavers in the area.

The ceremony at Southampton Container Terminals' 207 berth is highly significant as it will increase pressure on other shipping lines to follow P&O's example.

For example, Cunard, which has its European base in Southampton, is being urged to ensure that the Red Ensign flies over the prestigious Project Queen Mary.

This is the current plan to build the first genuine passenger liner, as opposed to a cruise ship, for some three decades.

The proposed liner, strongly-tipped to be called Queen Mary 2, is due to arrive in Southampton in 2003 and to operate alongside the QE2 on the transatlantic route to New York.

The tonnage tax is a specific method of corporation taxation for the shipping industry which is paid on the size of the company's fleet, rather than on profits earned by the company.

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