F/B IONIAN GLORY

Official Strintzis Lines postcard

Ship	Ionian Glory (1981) ΙΟΝΙΑΝ ΓΚΛΟΡΥ	Building Spec.	1958 at Chargeurs Reunis Loire Normandie, France N° 310
Call Sign		IMO Number	5077905
GRT	3.670	DWT	711
Dimensions	115,02 x 18,34 x 4,15	Engines	2 16c. Pielstick, 6.620 kW
Speed	17 knots	Passengers	830
Beds	689	Cars	160
Lane Metres		Sister ships
Registry Port	Piraeus	Flag	Greek
Former Owners	Sealink SNCF 1958-81	Former Names	Compiegne 1958-81
New Owners	Seven Islands Lines 1988 Vergina Lines 1989-90 Liano Shipping 1990-94 Raneem 1994 Waad 1995à	New names	Queen Vergina 1989-90 Freedom I 1990-94 Katerina 1994 Alamira 1995
Line

First ferry built for French state-owned companies, started her life in 1958 sailing in the Channel servine almost all the short connections in that area: Dover – Calais, Newhaven – Dieppe, Dover – Boulogne. When she was 23 years old was bought by Strintzis Lines and renamed “Ionian Glory”, a name that I always loved very much when I was a child and I looked at Strinzis Lines’s brochures. From the notices I have it seems that she linked Patras and Brindisi in her earlier Strintzis years, either passing via Corfu and Igoumenitsa or by other Ionian islands; this sounds to me strange, as long as I don’t remember any Strintzis service to Brindisi on that period. In December 1982 was also evacuating Palestinians from Beirut. In 1986 was surely on Ancona – Corfu – Igoumenitsa – Patras line with “Ionian Star” as her running-mate, in 1987 seems that she was engaged on the new Ancona – Split line, then in 1988 was one of the two international ferries of the disappeared Seven Islands Lines, a little popularly-owned shipping company based in Ionian Islands as long as Anek Lines is based in Crete and Nel Lines in Lesvos. For Seven Islands Lines was sailing with the “Ionis” on a Brindisi – Patras link which called in almost every port enroute from Apulia in Italy to Peloponnese in Greece (Corfu, Igoumenitsa, Paxi, Cephalonia, Ithaca), arriving at her final destination some twenty hours and half after leaving Brindisi; this also because of the long call in Corfu, the first port of call after Brindisi, which lasted fortyfive minutes instead of the regular quarter of an hour. Also the arrival time in Brindisi was very late, at four o’clock in the afternoon after a 19 hour crossing, but it was a more common hour comparing it with the other ferry operators of their time. She passed from Ionian Sea to Aegean Sea in 1989, when Vergina Lines purchased her and renamed the ferry “Queen Vergina”, displacing her on the once-time popular Piraeus – Cyprus – Israel crossing, nowadays totally abandoned by ferries for safety reasons and operated from Greece to Limassol by a pair of ro/ro ships. I’m wondering if the admittance of Greek Republic of Cyprus to European Union will bring new life to ferry connections on that line, considering also what happened to some new lines as the Civitavecchia – Barcelona operated by Grimaldi Group. However, the ship was resold the following year to Maltese owners which chartered her for almost a year to Malmö town, Sweden, as an accommodation ship, then the “Freedom I” came back to Greece and remained laid up until 1994, when was sold to Arab interests as a pilgrim ship in Red Sea; subsequently sold again and renamed, my sources are giving her as laid up since 1995 at Alexandria, Egypt. Probably after all this time the once-time Strintzis ship with nice name was already scrapped.

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