Senlac
 The Senlac in Newhaven, 1980s
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The Senlac was a ferry of the British shipping company Sealink , which entered service in 1973. In the course of its almost forty years of service, the ship was renamed and resold several times. In 2010 it was scrapped in Turkey .
history
The Senlac was built under the hull number CF3 at Arsenal de la Marine National Francaise in Brest and was launched on December 1, 1972. After the takeover by Sealink in April 1973, the ship was put into service on April 26th for several coastal voyages before it started official ferry operations from Newhaven to Dieppe on May 2nd .
From December 1975 to January 1976 the Senlac was briefly in service on the route from Dover via Boulogne-sur-Mer to Folkestone . On June 28, 1977 she took part in a naval parade for the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's throne .
On June 16, 1980, a fire broke out in the ship's engine room. The approximately one thousand passengers on board had to be evacuated. It was then repaired in Avonmouth and returned to service in August 1980. Another disaster befell the Senlac on October 4, 1981, when the ship's loading ramp collapsed in the port of Dieppe and a truck fell into the water. The driver was killed.
In January 1982 the crew of the Senlac went on strike in Newhaven after it became known that the ship would be sold to France . The Senlac ultimately remained in service under the British flag for another three years before it was sold to the French SNCF in 1985 . The sale did not change anything in their field of application.
After a short charter to the B + I Line from June to September 1987, the Senlac was sold to Ventouris Sea Lines in November 1987 and renamed Apollo Express . In 1988 she started ferry operations from Piraeus via Paros , Naxos , Ios and Santorini .
In 1993 the ship was named Apollo Express 1 . After two more years in service it had in October 1995 because of financial difficulties of the shipping company in Piraeus launched are. In August 1996 it went under the name Express Apollon to Agapitos Express Lines .
In 1999 Minoan Flying Dolphins took over the Express Apollon . It was deployed from Piraeus to several Greek islands with Santorini as the final destination. On December 28, 2003, the ship collided with a reef off Serifos , but was not seriously damaged.
In September 2004 the Express Apollon was launched in Piraeus. In January 2005 she was taken over by Hellenic Seaways and from then on she was back on the route from Piraeus to Santorini. On January 12, 2006, she finished her last crossing and was laid up again in Piraeus the following day.
In November 2006 the ship became the property of a Greek shipowner and was used by Apollonas Maritime SA. registered. In June 2007 the ferry service from Igoumenitsa to Korku and Brindisi started for European Seaways . After the Express Apollon was in service for almost a year from September 2007, it was used again on this route from July 2008. In November 2008 she switched to the Bari to Durres route .
In August 2010, the ship had to be retired due to an engine failure. It was transferred to Salamis and hung up there. In September 2010 the Express Apollon went to a demolition yard in Aliağa , Turkey , where it arrived on October 25 for scrapping.
Web links
- the ship on faktaomfartyg.se (Swedish)
- the ship on ferry-site.dk (English)
- the ship on doverferryphotosforums.co.uk (English)