Adamantios Korais in Piraeus, 10 November 2013

Today, we are taking a trip back in time to November 2013 and the Eastern Mediterranean cruise I did with my lovely wife onboard HAL's Rotterdam. As the cruise begun and ended at Piraeus, Greece, there were loads and loads of interesting ships - mostly ferries - to photograph. So this is the first of them.

Adamantios Korais

IMO number 8613607
Name history: Visva, Kuyshu, Adamantios Korais
Built 1987, Naikai Shipbuilders Setoda, Japan
Tonnage 6 307 GT
Length 100,15 m
Width 17,21 m
Draught 4,50 m
1 100 passengers
180 cars
350 lane metres
2 Daihatsu diesels, combined 5 885 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thruster
Speed 18,6 knots

The Adamantios Korais - named after a Greek humanist and writer, who is credites as having laid the foundations for modern Greek literature and language - is a nifty little ferry serving on routes connecting Piraeus to various islands in the Aegean archipelago. Like many other Greek ferries, her roots are in Japan: she was built in 1987 for Higashi Nihon Ferry as the Visva, serving on the Aomori (Honshu)-Hakodate (Hokkaido) route. (From a Finnish point of view the original name was very unfortunate - Visva literally translates as "pus").

In 1999 the ship passed to Kyu-Shi Ferry as the Kyushu, serving on a route connecting Yawatahama (Shikoku)-Usuki (Kyushu). (I'm presuming everyone remembers the rough geography of Japan's four main islands). In August 2008 the ship was sold to Anonimos Naftiliaki Metaforiki Eteria Zakynthoy S.A. (ANMEZ), a Greek shipping company trading under tha name Zante Ferries. The Kyushu was renamed Adamantios Korais and sailed to Greece, where she was given and extensive refit that left her essentially unrecognisable from the earlier incarnation. Following the refit the Adamantios Korais was placed on the Pireus-Paros-Naxos-Ios-Santorini -route, where she remains to this day.

The photographs below show the Adamantios Korais in the harbour of Piraeus on the afternoon of 10 November 2013. Photographed from onboard the Rotterdam. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

To be honest, Athens did not make my list of favourite cities during the visit. Still, the ferries were rather interesting - and I like the combination of the high-rise building and the ferry here.

And I have to say that Zante Ferries' orange livery does speak to me on a personal level. Although I'm puzzled why the vlack window stripe doesn't continue all the way around the forward part.

Some hours after the previous photographs were taken, our departure allowed for somewhat different point of view.

Next time: Highspeed 4 or, if have time to work on them, Silja Serenade & Silja Symphony together in Helsinki.