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ro/ro serenissima express
Photo ©
Egidio Ferrighi, Caralis,
1988 #5992
Ship
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Serenissima Express (1976)
Charter 1976-79
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Building Spec.
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Hayashikane
Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd., Shimonoseki, Japan,
1976 – N° 1196
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Call Sign
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ITCL
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IMO Number
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7517583
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GRT
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13.972
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DWT
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4.412
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Dimensions
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147,61 x 22,84 x 6,6
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Engines
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1 Mitsubishi – MAN 16V52-55 4S, 11.768
kW
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Speed
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20 knots (22,4 max)
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Passengers
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12
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Beds
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12
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Cars
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45
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Lane Metres
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1.150
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Sister Ships
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Hellenic
Carrier († 2010)
Hellenic
Trader († 2013)
Italroro One († 2011)
Italroro Three (†
2011)
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Registry Port
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Venice
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Flag
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Italian
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Former Names/Own.
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Serenissima Express – Società Mototraghetti Mediterranea 1976-79
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New Names/Own.
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Calabria – Tirrenia
Navigazione 1989-06
Italroro Two
– Italroro / Puglia Navigazione 2006-04/2011
Scrapped at Aliaga,
Turkey 07/2011
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Line
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The “Serenissima Express” is the first of three sisters ordered
by the shipowner Russotti
from Catania,
for his company Mongibel International; they were an
evolution of an Hayashikane shipyard’s project, which had already gave birth to
other two vessels delivered to Japanese shipowners,
which were different only on weather deck, enclosed on the three “Italian”
sisters. The property of the ferries was transferred to Società
Mototraghetti Mediterranea,
belonging to the same shipowner, and the company
chartered the sisters to Adriatica Navigazione, which intended to deploy the vessels on North Europe - Mediterranean services. Anyway the price
agreed upon between Adriatica and So.Mo.Me.
caused many right polemics in Italy:
Adriatica had to pay to So.Mo.Me
50 billions of Italian Lires
for five years of three-ship charter. To understand better how much high was
this charter fee, we can say that, according to Istat,
this fee is corresponding to about 210
millions of 2009 Euros. This transaction caused a judicial enquiry which forced
Adriatica to buy the three vessels, and this scandal,
damaging again the pockets of Italian taxpayers, brought to the three vessels
the nickname of “Golden Ferries”, where it’s easy to understand that the
“golden” is not related to the hull colour. Being deployed on Adriatica lines to Northern Europe from the delivery to the
end of the service, which came in 1978, was then moved to Middle East services
to Aqaba (Jordan), Alexandria (Egypt) and Limassol (Cyprus). In 1984 was chartered with
the sister “Anglia Express” to Sitra, deployed
between Genoa, La Spezia and Palermo; then was employed also on Tirrenia routes; the Naples-based company finally bought
her from Adriatica in 1989, renaming the vessel
“Calabria” and serving Sardinia and Sicily from both Naples and Genoa ports. On
September 2006, was sold “en-bloc” with her two sisters to Puglia Navigazione, renamed “Italroro
Two” and maintaining the Italian flag, changing only the registry port from Naples to Bari.
Deployed between Bari and Canakkale,
near Istanbul, on Asian coast of Dardanelles,
aiming to establish between Southern Italy and Turkey a strong sea bridge, she
offered three sailings per-week working in tandem with her sister “Italroro One”; anyway the project was not successful and
the ferry was engaged in a long serie of charters.
The first important charter of this vessel was concluded after 28 days of
detention in Turkey, and was an attempt to compete with the Greek sisters of
this vessel sailing under Hellenic Seaways’s colours
on Corinth – Venice line. The vessel was soon released from this occupation and
used for a trip between Turkey and Albania; was then chartered to Navigazione Stretto di Messina, a
company formed by two consortiums of Sicilian road hauliers, for a new Leghorn
– Termini Imerese line. This service anyway had a
very short life, started on July 9th, 2007, and finished at the end
of August, due to unpaid charter wages; the following charter was to SNAV,
which signed with Puglia di Navigazione a two-year
contract to use the ferry on its main route Naples – Palermo, with also a
weekly trip to Caralis; SNAV engaged her also on the
famous “rubbish trips”, carrying garbage trucks from Naples to Sardinian
incinerators. The charter anyway didn’t lasted even a quarter of what stated on
the agreement between Italroro and SNAV and the “Italroro Two” was delivered back to the owners on April 30th,
2008, after some problems happened to the ship; for these reasons Italroro intended to send the ship to Genoa yards for
repairs, but due to unavailability of these yards, was sent to Augusta, Sicily.
Anyway the ferry was arrested there and remained moored in the Sicilian port
until April 2011, when finally the Bari Court, which during the previous three
years ordered various auctions trying to find a buyer for her after the
bankruptcy of the owner, sold the ferry to Turkish breakers at the amount of
Euro 2.000.000; this is a big pity, considering that she was the most
representative of this trio of sisters, and the one who carried the “Serenissima” name, the famous nickname of Venice, Adriatica’s homeport.
The ferry
just delivered without the St. Mark’s Lion on the funnel – Photo from Jeanburlon’s collection #6327
Photo from Commis’s collection #5968
Photo from Jeanburlon’s collection #6326
TIRRENIA NAVIGAZIONE
Ro/Ro Calabria – Photo © Michele Lulurgas, Genoa, 04/06/06 #4356
TIRRENIA NAVIGAZIONE
Ro/Ro Calabria – Photo © Michele Lulurgas, Genoa, 04/06/06 #4361
ITALRORO
PUGLIA NAVIGAZIONE Ro/Ro Italroro Two
– Photo © Alessandro Orfanù, Bari, 10/04/07 #6478
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