F/B Erotokritos T.

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F/B EROTOKRITOS T.

Photo © Michele Lulurgas, Igoumenitsa, 02/04/2010 #9573

Ship	Erotokritos T. (2007) ΕΡΩΤΟΚΡΙΤΟΣ Τ.	Building Spec.	Naikai Zosen K.K. Setoda (Onomichi), Japan, 1974 – N° 387
Call Sign	SVHD	IMO Number	7394747
GRT	24.055	DWT	5.422
Dimensions	188,40 x 25 x 6,70	Engines	2 Mitsubishi – MAN V7V52/55A, 27.580 kW
Speed	23 knots	Passengers	1.000
Beds	446 in 126 cabins	Cars	785
Lane Metres	1.550	Sister Ships	Lato
Registry Port	Piraeus	Flag	Greek
Former Names/Owners	Ishikari – Taiheiyo Enkai Ferry 12/1974-82 Ishikari – Taiheiyo Ferry 1982-1990 Ishikari – Strintzis Lines 1990-05/1991 Erotokritos – Minoan Lines 05/1991-12/1999 Erotokritos – Minoan Flying Dolphins/Hellas Flying Dolphins 12/1999-12/2002 Chartered to Minoan Lines* 12/1999-06/2002* Chartered to Maritime Way 07/2002-01/2003 Erotokritos – Maritime Way 02/2003-01/2007
New Names/Owners	Scrapped at Alang (India) as “Kritos” on January 2011
Line

The “Ishikari” was delivered to Taiheiyo Enkai Ferry, later known as Taiheiyo Ferry, for Nagoya – Sendai – Tomakomai line, In 1990 she was bought by Strintzis Lines and soon resold to Minoan Lines, which renamed her “Erotokritos” and deployed the ferry always on international services, first on Ancona – Patras and Ancona – Igoumenitsa, later on Venice – Corfu – Igoumenitsa – Patras. In 1999 the ownership of the “Erotokritos” was transferred to Minoan Flying Dolphins; anyway the ferry remained in Minoan Lines’s services until 2002 when, after a rationalization of Minoan Lines’s Venice services, was redelivered to the owner Hellas Flying Dolphins. Anyway that company didn’t deployed the ferry in their service, chartering her to Maritime Way. After almost five years of service for the Italo-Greek company, some rumours about her sale became stronger and stronger, and finally a buyer for the “Erotokritos” came out: it was Dimitrios Gianetatos, already owner of the “Elli T.”, which intended to deploy the ferry on Endeavor Lines’s service between Brindisi, Igoumenitsa and Patras, reaching also Corfu and Cephalonia on high season. This happened in 2007 Spring, after the return of the “Erotokritos T.” from Tuzla shipyard, where she was refitted. This work in my opinion has contrasting results: the interior was extremely well altered, reminding the “Ionian Queen” style, with very interesting color schemes and heavy use of wood tonalities; the exterior paintwork instead was very unsatisfactory. This time the “Endeavor Lines” mark is of the right size, but the fonts used are slightly different from those used on “Ionian Queen”, giving an idea of old age; the blue and yellow stripes painted at stern are lacking on this vessel; anyway the ugliest mistake are the yellow and red stripes on the funnel, which are painted descending to the stern and not to the bow. Later, the stern stripes were added, but the wrong graphic of the funnel wasn’t changed. In 2008 the partner of the “Erotokritos T.” became the “Ionian Queen”, then, in 2009, the ferry received the new livery of the company, starting also to be employed, on an irregular basis, also on the shorter Brindisi – Corfu – Igoumenitsa line. In 2010 the “Erotokritos T.” started to suffer of mechanical troubles, which sometimes affected her sailings; at the end of the year the company sold the ferry to Indian shipyards, signing the end of an hystorical Greek ferry. The only regret of her interesting life, in my opinion, was the missing career in Strintzis Lines.