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VENTOURIS LINES
As the fourth and last company born
under the umbrella of the original “C. Ventouris and
Sons” shipping company, Ventouris Lines was
established at the end of 1992, when Antonios Ventouris left Ventouris Sea
Lines, which he managed together with his brother Vangelis Ventouris,
aiming to develop his own company as all the other brothers already did, with
Georgios Ventouris leading Ventouris
Ferries and Apostolos Ventouris his A.K. Ventouris shipping company. While Apostolos and Georgios,
at that time, had their business on Adriatic routes linking Greece with southern
Italy, Antonios chose to launch his company in Aegean
Sea, avoiding anyway the competition against the company of his brother
Vangelis, and serving an area where Ventouris Sea
Lines, his former company, didn’t operate, the Argosaronic
Gulf.
The chance to enter this market was
given to Antonios Ventouris
by the exit from Argosaronikos routes of Ventouris Ferries, so Ventouris
Lines bought the ferry that was operated by Georgios Ventouris’s
company on the line, the YDRA, and renamed her as AGIOS NEKTARIOS. After an
important refit, the AGIOS NEKTARIOS started its career under her new livery,
very close to those of other Ventouris companies, but
with a different lettering and a different colour scheme
on the funnel, with the familiar Ventouris crest in
white on a light blue background.
The AGIOS NEKTARIOS proved to be the most plush ferry on Argosaronic
trade, largely appreciated for her large and comfortable interiors, so Antonios Ventouris decided to
raise the stake of the competition by investing in new tonnage, the first of
that was the METHODIA, bought in 1994, formerly known as the KYKLADES of
Agapitos Bros. The expansion of the company went on in 1995 by the acquisition
of the ERGINA from Ventouris Sea Lines of Vangelis Ventouris, renamed as the METHODIA II, being the largest
ferry operating on Argosaronikos trade that time, a
record which is still unbeaten today.
After having grown at so rapid pace, anyway,
the company soon ran into financial troubles, and by the end of 1995 all the
ferries of the company were laid up and followed a different fate each one: the
METHODIA was auctioned, the METHODIA II was sold, and the AGIOS NEKTARIOS was
abandoned in Piraeus area till her scrap.