Rahal (ship)
 As Alandia in August 2005
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The Rahal is a Cambodian flag ferry that entered service as Diana for the Viking Line in 1972 . The ship has been launched since April 2012 .
history
The Diana was given on 17 December 1970 as one of nine almost identical ferries commissioned and on May 3, 1972, the hull number 566 in the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg to put Kiel . The launch took place on August 28, 1972. After a special trip carried out for press purposes, in which the Swedish pop group ABBA was present, the ferry was put into service on December 17, 1972 on the route from Kapellskär to Mariehamn and Naantali .
In the following years the Diana changed her route several times. On July 4, 1978, the ship ran aground off Mariehamn and lost oil in the process. After the ferry could not be freed on its own, the passengers were taken over by the Kapella ferry, which also belongs to the Viking Line , while the RoRo freighter Travetal took over the cargo. The Diana was towed free the next day and, after repair work, resumed ferry service on July 15.
In April 1979 the ship became the property of the Finnish Oy Vaasa-Umeå Ab under the name Botnia Express, and in the same month it returned to service on its original route from Kapellskär via Mariehamn to Naantali under the charter of the previous owner Viking Line. From June 1979 the ferry finally operated various routes in Finnish waters for its owner. During a renovation in 1980, the Botnia Express received, among other things, an additional restaurant.
In July 1982 the Oy Vaasa-Umeå Ab was bought by the Rederi Ab Sally, but this did not change anything in the use of the ship. From January to March 1989 the ferry was chartered by the Sally Line and used in the ferry service from Ramsgate to Dunkerque .
From November 1989 on, Botnia Express was chartered by Jakob Line under the unofficial name Polar Princess between Skellefteå and Jakobstad , before it drove for the Baltic Express Line between Helsinki and Tallinn in March 1990 . There were complications when the ship first arrived in Tallinn, as most of the passengers on board were not allowed to leave the ferry. Only six passengers with a valid visa for the Soviet Union were able to disembark as planned.
In February 1992 the Eckerö Line bought the ship and renamed it Alandia . In the following years it was in use on various routes, but most frequently between Grisslehamn and Eckerö and between Helsinki and Tallinn. During a crossing to Tallinn on February 16, 1995, 88 illegally traveling refugees from Iran were discovered on board the ship.
Between September 1998 and May 2000 the Alandia was in Mariehamn. In 1999 the ship made only two trips to Kapellskär without passengers with military equipment on board. In May 2000 the ferry returned to regular service, but was out of service from January to July 2001 because it was equipped with new stabilizers , among other things . In the following years the RG-Line chartered the Alandia several times . In October 2005 the ship finally ended its service for the Eckerö Line.
After several months in Mariehamn, the ferry went to the Bayway Shipping Company based in the Marshall Islands in April 2006 . In September 2006, the ship began service between Jeddah and Suez under the name Jamaa II . In April 2012 the Jamaa II was retired and launched under the Panamanian flag in Suez. The ship has been registered in Cambodia since February 2012 and has been called Rahal since November 2015 . It lies in the port of Jeddah.
Web links
- the ship on faktaomfartyg.se (Swedish)
- the ship on ferry-site.dk (English)
- History of the ship on doverferryphotosforums.co.uk (English)