F/B Kamiros - Piraeus

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F/B KAMIROS

kamiros_1966_1

Photo by courtesy of Micke Asklander

Ship	Kamiros (1980) ΚΑΜΙΡΟΣ	Building Spec.	Crichton Vulcan, Turku, Finland, 1966 – N° 1133
Call Sign		IMO Number	6604470
GRT	8.687	DWT	1.808
Dimensions	134,32 x 19,94 x 5,71	Engines	2 Wärtsilä-Sulzer 8RD56, 10.298 kW
Speed	20 knots	Passengers	1.200
Beds	412	Cars	247
Lane Metres	468	Sister ships	Freewinds Noura I (demolita nel 2004) Princesa Marissa (demolita nel 2008)
Registry Port	Rhodes	Flag	Greece
Former Names/Own.	Prins Hamlet – Lion Ferry 05/1966-05/1969 Chartered to American International Travel Service* 01/1968-05/1968* Chartered to American International Travel Service* 09/1968-05/1969* Prinz Hamlet – Prinzen Line 05/1969-11/1970 Roussillon – C.G.T.M. Compagnie Générale Transméditerranéenne 11/1970-03/1976 Roussillon – S.N.C.M. Société Nationale Corse Méditerranéenne 03/1976-01/1980 Roussillon – D.A.N.E. 01/1980-03/1980
New Names/Owners	Thessaloniki – Ascot Seatrade Corporation 10/1995-02/2001 Queen Calliope – Anez Shipping 02/2001-05/2002 Scrapped at Aliaga (Turkey) in June 2002 as “Opi”
Line

Delivered to Lion Ferry of Sweden on May 14^th, 1966 was the second of a four-sister ferries built in both Helsinki and Turku Wärtsilä yards, the first built in Turku, when the yard was still named Crichton Vulcan. Even if the four vessels were very similar each other, the two Turku-built sisters, ordered by Lion Ferry and Wallenius Group, had an entirely closed bridge, while the Helsinki-built sisters, ordered by Finnlines, had open side wings; the “Finnhansa”, the first ferry of the class, was also ten centimetres longer than her three sisters, to be declared the largest ferry serving the Baltic sea at the time of her delivery. The “Prins Hamlet” started her service on May 23^rd, from Bremerhaven to Harwich, after having been shown to the public in Stockholm and Halmstads and after two mini-cruises, one from Stockholm to Copenhagen and back, the second from Stockholm to Marienhamn and Norrköping. Her livery was a blue one, with a yellow funnel bearing the “B” logo, after the Bonnier group, the owner of Lion Ferry. After the Summer service in North Sea, marketed by Wallenius, was deployed on Winter cruises from Malmö and Copenhagen to Canary islands; before this deployment was anyway refitted at Götaverken yard of Göteborg, where a swimming-pool was fitted and some cabin units were added in her garage; the swimming-pool unfortunately was removed later in the years. On Autumn 1967 was involved in Carribbean cruises, but also in short periods of service in the Baltic, between Malmö and Travemünde and on Halmstads – Copenhagen mini-cruises. In 1968 was still used between Bremerhaven and Harwich on Summer; the remaining part of the year was spent on charter to American International Travel Service which used the ferry until May 1969 on cruises from Lisbon and from Recife; on May 22^nd, 1969, arrived in Hamburg from Rio de Janeiro, mooring for berth trials at Sankt Pauli Landungsbrücken, where a week later was sold to Prinzen Line, a joint-owned company between Lion Ferry and Hadag; the ferry was renamed “Prinz Hamlet”, translating the “prince” word from Swedish to German, and changing her Summer service to Hamburg – Harwich. Was sold in February 1970, and she came in Mediterranean sea in November 1970, bought by Compagnie Generale Transmediterraneenne for the lines Marseille - Corse and Marseille – Tunisia and renamed “Roussillon”, a French region; in 1974 her garage was restored to her original capacity by removing some cabins installed for cruise service. In 1980 was named “Kamiros” atfter the purchase by Dodekanissiaki Anonimi Naftiki Etareia, best known as DANE Sea Line, to be employed from Piraeus to Patmos, Leros, Kalymnos, Kos and Rhodes, four times a-week (Monday at 14.00, Wednesday at 13.00, Friday at 12.00 and Sunday at 10.00 only to Kalymnos); in her first years for DANE she sailed also from Rhodes to Agios Nikolaos, Crete, via Karpathos. During her DANE years, she wore three different liveries: the original one was white hull with a dark-blue loop just over the name, a bright-orange funnel with the company logo inscribed in a red loop; later the loop became far thinner, finally the funnel was repainted in bright yellow, with the logo no more inscripted in a red loop, and the “Dane Sea Line” mark was painted on each side of the hull. The dark blue loop disappeared, leaving only two stripes before and after the “Dane Sea Line” mark; the graphic result of this livery anyway, in my opinion was far worse than on the “Ialyssos”, where the company name was between the two strips, rather than under them. The “Kamiros” anyway maintained the classic Lion Ferry frieze on her bow throughout her DANE career. I travelled aboard her from Piraeus to Patmos on September 1993: she was a good ship; however lacking the facilities of a Greek cruise-ferry; particularly the first class lounge was very impressive, other spaces, including the cabin and outside decks, was little wretched. 1994 was the last full year of service for the ferry, and was unfortunately characterized by two accidents, both in Rhodes, both on Saturday. The first one happened on March 12^th, when attempting to avoid the “Sea Serenade” moored in port, was drifted by strong winds to Akantia port and grounded, filling also the ballast tanks in order to be safe. Refloated a week later, on March 20^th sailed to Piraeus without passengers to be inspected, entered dry-dock on March 23^rd, and was back in service two days later, on March 25^th. Only five months later, docking at Rhodes port on Saturday August 13^th, one of the busiest days for Rhodes port, which was complete with four cruise-ships, the “Rodanthi” and the “Rodos”, during her manoeuvre the “Rodanthi” started to raise her anchors, and the anchor chain dropped into “Kamiros”’s port side propeller. The ferry was docked only with the help of a tug, and on August 14^th made sea trials at Rhodes. On August 16^th sailed without passengers to Piraeus where her rudder and her propellers were inspected, then sailed normally to Patmos, Leros, Kalymnos, Kos and Rhodes. The last round-trip from Piraeus to Rhodes was on October 17^th, 1994; when back in Piraeus, two days later, was laid up at Perama, with almost all the crew disembarked. The “Kamiros” was drydocked at Elefsina between June 8^th, 1995 and June 16^th, but never re-entered service for DANE, being sold in October to Ascot Seatrade Corporation, which renamed her “Thessaloniki”. Her name was due to the new hub port for her service, started in 1996, which saw her leaving Macedonia’s capital weekly on a cruise to Tinos, Kos, Limassol, Haifa, Patmos and Mytilene, effected on a weekly basis. It’s interesting to notice that for this service the “Thessaloniki” sailed under Maltese flag, and that she didn’t carried vehicles even if the trade to Cyprus and Israel is very lucrative. The service wasn’t so successful, so the following year, 1997, the “Thessaloniki” left the Aegean for the Adriatic, sailing on the Brindisi - Igoumenitsa – Patras line, leaving from Patras and Brindisi three times a week on afternoon and arriving the following day in the morning. This service, on a route where the competition was very harsh, proved to be also unsuccessful, so the ferry was destined to three years of lay-up at Eleusis. In 2001 was renamed “Queen Calliope” and registered for Anez Shipping. Even if I’m not sure about it, I suppose that this is the same Zakynthos-based company which operates the “Zakynthos I” between the island and Kyllini, aiming to operate also a ferry to Italy for intercepting the Summer traffic to Ionian islands. The tourists, anyway had to go to Zakynthos in a different way, as long as the ship wasn’t deployed on any service, leaving Elefsina only on May 2002, when she was towed to Aliaga for being scrapped. She was the first “Finnhansa-class” vessel to be scrapped, and nowadays only the last ship of the class, the once-time “Boheme”, which never had a car deck, is still in service, operating for Scientology Church as the “Freewinds”. What an inglorious end...