HSC ''Santorini Palace'' (ex ''Highspeed 7, Highspeed 5'') is an 85m high speed catamaran operated by

Minoan Lines Minoan Lines is one of the largest passenger ferry companies in Europe, and one of the dominant passenger ferry companies in Greece, sailing between Piraeus and Crete and in the Adriatic Sea, between Patras and various Italian ports. The company ...

History

The vessel was built as ''Highspeed 5'' by

Austal Austal is an Australian-based global ship building company and defence prime contractor that specialises in the design, construction and support of defence and commercial vessels. Austal's product range includes naval vessels, high-speed passeng ...

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...

, Australia in 2005, on order by

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

ferry operator

Hellenic Seaways Hellenic Seaways is member of Attica Group, which is engaged in passenger shipping through SUPERFAST FERRIES, BLUE STAR FERRIES, HELLENIC SEAWAYS and AFRICA MOROCCO LINK operating 35 vessels providing modern, high-quality transportation service ...

. She entered service with Hellenic Seaways in July 2005, initially sailing between

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saron ...

and

Cyclades The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name ...

and in later years between

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban Ar ...

and central

. In 2016, after being repaired due to fire, she was renamed ''Highspeed 7''. In early summer 2018, ''Highspeed 7'' was transferred to

as part of the deal for the sale of Minoan's stake in

Attica Group Attica Holdings S.A. is an operator of international ferry services in Europe. The Group's operations include its subsidiaries Superfast Ferries, which began in 1995 with the launch of its first ships, Superfast I & Superfast II, and Blue Star Fer ...

. She was renamed ''Santorini Palace'' and painted in Minoan's colors on June 13, 2018.

Fire incident and change of name to HS7

On March 23, 2015, while ''Highspeed 5'' was docked at Drapetsona for modification works and inspections, a fire broke out on board that resulted in the death of the chief electrician and the destruction of her

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

and upper decks. In September 2015, the vessel was towed to

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

shipyards in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

, where she underwent extensive repairs. During them, the upper car deck was substituted with a passenger lounge, increasing her capacity to 1160 passengers. After being repaired, she was renamed ''Highspeed 7'' and resumed her

service in mid June 2016.

References

External links

Austal Ships - Auto Express 85 - ''Highspeed 5'' specificationsSantorini Palace at Minoan Lines Website

Gallery

File:Highspeed_7_-_HSW_-_Heraklion_-_Portside.jpg, In HSW colors at

File:Highspeed 7 - HSW - Santorini - Portside.jpg, In HSW colors at Santorini File:HSWHighSpeed5.jpg, As Highspeed 5 in older colors at

Ios iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

File:Highspeed5 Piraeus 20110706.jpg, As Highspeed 5 at

File:Paros Hellenic Seaways Highspeed 5 07.jpg, As Highspeed 5 during a docking maneuver at

Paros Paros (; el, Πάρος; Venetian: ''Paro'') is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of ...

File:Paros Hellenic Seaways Highspeed 5 09.jpg, As Highspeed 5 at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santorini Palace Ships built by Austal Ferries of Greece Individual catamarans 2005 ships