{"id":1628,"date":"2009-09-27T10:48:53","date_gmt":"2009-09-27T10:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hhvferry.com\/blog\/?p=1628"},"modified":"2009-09-28T18:05:20","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T18:05:20","slug":"things-seen-september-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hhvferry.com\/blog\/?p=1628","title":{"rendered":"Things Seen – September 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Istra (ex-Mette Mols) at Split.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
  • Firstly, apologies to regular readers for the month or so of no updates – hopefully the break will have been worth it, with plenty of new material gathered during a 3 week trip to Southern Europe where plenty of ferries were seen, sailed on, photographed, and, in the case of at least three, farewells made as they are understood to be in the final weeks of service.<\/li>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

  • The Istra (ex-Mette Mols, 1966) has since been put up for public sale by Jadrolinija, although the expectation is that she will follow former fleetmate the Ivan Zajc to Turkish owners. As Slobodna Dalmacija<\/a><\/em> ruefully notes, there will be some criticism of the sale, as the ship “had its admirers, especially among Lastovo and Kor??ula [residents], who praised its comfort” compared to the more modern vessels. The ship has also been widely used to cover longer lines, such as for example the during the recent mechanical failure of the Petar Hektorovi?. She was however proving too small at times, and when I sailed on her in late August she was forced to leave cars behind in Stari Grad. Doubtless this is frustrating when the next sailing back to Split isn’t for another four hours!\n

    Also for sale are the Vanga (ex-Basto III) and the little Borik, latterly second ship to the Kijevo at Biograd. There remain several other Jadrolinija ships laid up in various ports around the country and Hans de Graaf continues to do a public service with his photographs of several of the many and varied ships of the White Fleet, a few more having been uploaded in recent weeks here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

    Meanwhile Fleet File Rotterdam has a fairly thorough section<\/a> on Jadrolinija, correct up to a couple of years ago.<\/li>\n

    \"The<\/a>
    The Borik (1978) in Biograd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
  • Ferg\u00fcn Shipping<\/a> of Turkey operate a fleet of mostly-forgotten ex-North European ships on routes between Northern Cyprus and the Turkish mainland. Quite what current operations are like is open to question, the company’s website being more than a little out of date: at least two of the ships featured have been sold, one most definitely for scrapping having been seen on the beach in Aliaga in 2007.\n

    The fleet as listed however was a fascinating collection and pictures of and on board all are shown on the site. With links to the images, the four fast ferries were:
    \n    Ferg\u00fcn Express<\/a> (ex-Storesund of Norwegian Haugesund A\/S, 1974)
    \n    Ferg\u00fcn Express III<\/a> (built as the Venture 84 in 1982, from 1983 to 1998 she was Emeraude’s Trident\/Trident III)
    \n    Emeraude Express<\/a> (built for Emeraude in 1986 she survives without change of name).
    \n    Prince of Girne<\/a> (ex-Gimle Bay, 1981, primarily used in Yugoslavia\/Croatia as the Pore?? I until sale to Ferg\u00fcn in 1994.)
    \n

    \"The<\/a>
    The Girne<\/figcaption><\/figure>
    \nThe conventional ferries are more interesting still:
    \n    Canbulat Pasha<\/a>. Purpose built, 1997.
    \n    Girne<\/a>. The ex-Saltholm (1967) of Svenska Rederi Ab \u00d6resund’s Limhamn – Drag\u00f6r route until 1979, then the Gozo Channel company’s Mgarr until sale to Ferg\u00fcn in 1996. Scrapped 2007.
    \n    Fatih<\/a>. An astonishing survivor, originally being the Mersey pilot vessel Arnet Robinson (1958), passing to Ferg\u00fcn in 1988 where she was converted to a small car ferry. Compare this picture<\/a> of her in her original guise with this image<\/a> after conversion. Another picture<\/a> of her as Fatih reveals the tall funnel remains unobstructed.
    \n    G\u00fcniz<\/a>. Built as the Kraaker\u00f8 in Norway in 1964 she had an itinerant early career before settling down as Rederi AB Gotland’s Polhelm between 1964 and 1972. Later one of Tourship’s first vessels, the Corsica Ferry until sale in 1976 to Jadrolinija as the Lastovo I. She remained, with a couple of name changes, with Jadrolinija until 1996 and has sailed in Turkish waters ever since, latterly for Ferg\u00fcn although she was sold in early 2009 to operate between Turkey and Russia. <\/li>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

  • Some interesting images of Turkish\/Russian ferries can be seen on the four pages of this link to a Russian shipping forum<\/a> including the aforementioned G\u00fcniz and Ivan Zajc (now the Besyildiz), but also the Lider Avrasya (once Sealink’s Ulidia), Lider Clipper (ex-Agios Spiridon), still bearing her HML name the Apollonia II (ex-Travem\u00fcnde, 1964), the Trabzon (ex-Panagia Tinou, sold by NEL Lines earlier this year) and the Erke (formerly Agapitos Express\/Saronikos Ferries’ Express Danae), amongst others.\n<\/li>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

  • The Zeus Palace has been an interesting stopgap on Minoan Lines’ Patras-Igoumenitsa-Venice route this Summer, following the sale of the Pasiphae Palace. The return of the former Prometheus has been rather underwhelming for many passengers – although she looks nice enough in these pictures by Dominik Wagner<\/a>, in reality she has been just a little too small for the route.
    \nDominik also has recent images     on board Agoudimos’ Ionian Sky<\/a>. She is essentially unchanged since her Strintzis rebuild as the Ionian Victory in 1998.
    \n
    \"The<\/a>
    The Ionian Sky at Corfu<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

  • We have lingered over the demise of the Kapetan Alexandros several times on this blog, and the guys over at Nautilia<\/a> clearly felt the same way about the end of this veteran, getting on board the ship in Keratsini just before she sailed for scrap to take some final photographs<\/a>, including a series in her quite antiquated bridge.\n<\/li>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

  • Apropos of nothing, I was taken with this dramatic image<\/a> of the Princess Kathleen of Canadian Pacific sinking in 1952. The ship, built in Glasgow in 1924, originally made Vancouver-Victoria-Seattle coastal sailings but was latterly employed on cruises up to Alaska, meeting her fate after running aground near Juneau. Many more pictures of this dramatic event, in which no lives were lost, can be found at Alaska’s Digital Archive<\/a>.\n<\/li>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

  • The Queen Elizabeth 2 may not technically have been a ferry, but she was certainly, as built, a beautiful example of the very best of 1960s British design. This was sadly diluted in later years to a slightly naff kind kitsch look. However, as Bruce Peter notes in the authoritative Britain’s Greatest Liner<\/a><\/em> the ship had direct design influences over many cruise ships and ferries in the subsequent decade or more. Bruce also references the famous 1969 article in Shipping World and Shipbuilder<\/em> which compared and contrasted the QE2 with the equally new and forward-looking Vortigern<\/a>, produced by Swan Hunters in the same year.\n

    For anyone wondering just what influence it was the epoch-making Vortigern had on the QE2, some superb images of the latter ship, as built, can be found here<\/a>.\n<\/li>\n

  • The Caesarea and Duke of Argyll were two of the last surviving ex-Sealink steam ships, and both had final days in Hong Kong, the ‘Argyll’ burning out there under the name Zenith in 1995. There are some fascinating images on flickr<\/a> of both ships in those days, including the burnt and broken Zenith.\n<\/li>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

  • Mention was made of the \u00c4lvsborg Bridge last month<\/a> and, with perfect timing, over on Landg\u00e5ngen there materialised a thread with pictures of various ferries<\/a> sailing beneath, including the Prinsessan Birgitta in her one season operating for Stena in 1982 before starting her career as the St Nicholas for Sealink.\n<\/li>\n

    <\/em><\/p>\n

  • Although special Lego kits have been sold by many ferry companies for years, how many of us regretted their incompatibility due to inconsistency of scale with the minifigs<\/a> of Legoland? Just me huh? Oh well, this model of the 1974 Prinsessan Birgitta<\/a> would certainly have been an improvement:
    \n    Picture 1<\/a>
    \n    Picture 2<\/a><\/p>\n

    (link from Landg\u00e5ngen<\/a>)<\/em><\/li>\n

    \"<\/a>
    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
  • Tallink certainly aren’t my, or many other people’s, favourite ferry company at times, some superb ships such as the Star notwithstanding. The crassness of the company’s management is a primary reason for distaste, the famous incident on the Silja Symphony<\/a> being the confirmation of previous suspicions about the company.\n

    The quote from one of the Tallink directors, “our level of drunkenness was normal for a cruise of this kind” was memorable, but the signature indiscretion of that fateful cruise was the attempt to “grill” some fish from the Sm\u00f6rg\u00e5sbord in the toasters, conventionally used for bread. On my most recent trip on the ‘Symphony’ I made sure to have my picture taken next to one of the toasters; however, I wish I had known that there were even better permanent reminders of the event<\/a>. Now: how does one get onto Tallink’s Christmas card list? <\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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