Arkas (ship)
 As Merdif 2 in November 2005
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The Arkas (あ る か す) was a 1972 commissioned ferry of the Japanese shipping company Taiheiyō Ferry . She remained in service in Japanese waters until 1987 and then had more than twenty years of service in the Mediterranean under various names and owners. After his retirement in January 2011, the ship went to abort the Indian Alang .
history
The Arkas was built under construction number 240 in the Setoda Zōsen shipyard in Setoda and was launched in April 1972. After delivery to Taiheiyō Ferry on September 11, 1972, the ship took the ferry service between Nagoya , Sendai and Tomakomai in the same month . Sister ship was the 1973 Albireo .
After the Arkas had only operated Sendai and Tomakomai since 1984, it was sold to the Greek Strintzis Line in 1987 and renamed the Ionian Galaxy . For the Strintzis Line in 1988 she started service from Patras via Igoumenitsa and Corfu to Ancona . On August 22, 1991, the ship was slightly damaged in a fire in the engine room. From 1995 onwards, in addition to Ancona, it also called Venice . Between 1998 and 1999 the ferry was chartered to the General National Martime Transport Company in Libya .
In 2000, the Ionian Galaxy, under the new name Blue Galaxy, became the property of Blue Star Ferries , for which it operated the route between Patras and Brindisi from March 2001 . After only a few months in the service of the shipping company, however, from June 2001 she was chartered out as Çeşme 2 to Turkish Marmara Lines and used for the service from Brindisi to Turkey . After expiry of the charter, the ship was from September 2001 launched .
After almost a year and a half of layover , the ferry, now renamed Merdif 2 , came into the possession of Marco Shipping, based in Panama . In the same year it was put into service in the ferry service from Dubai to Iraq . After eight years, the ship was finally decommissioned in January 2011 and sold for demolition in Alang, India. The Merdif 2 arrived there on February 1, 2011.
Web links
- The ship on faktaomfartyg.se (Swedish)
- The ship on ferry-site.dk (English)