The MS ''Asterion II'' is a Greek

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

and is the newest in

ANEK Lines ANEK Lines (Ανώνυμη Ναυτιλιακή Εταιρεία Κρήτης, ''Anonymi Naftiliaki Eteria Kritis'', Anonymous Shipping Company of Crete) is one of the largest passenger shipping companies in Greece. It was founded in 1967 by nu ...

' fleet. In addition to commercial purposes, the ferry is used to secretly detain refugees and facilitate illegal pushbacks from Italy to Greece. Asterion II is a Ro-Ro/Passenger ferry, built in 1991 at

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and put into service by ANEK in 2018 (previously operated under different names and owners). She holds a total of 720 passengers, 840 cars and 117 trucks and has 451 beds for passengers. She has two 14-cyl MAN- B&W-

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

14V52/55B engines, with combined power of 18,460 kW and reaches speeds of up to 22 knots. She was named after Asterion of Crete, a mythical king of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

and has the

flag of Cyprus The national flag of Cyprus ( el, Σημαία της Κύπρου, Simaía tis Kýprou; tr, Kıbrıs bayrağı) came into use on 16 August 1960, under the Zürich and London Agreements, whereby a constitution was drafted and Cyprus was proclai ...

, making it the only ship of the fleet with a non-

Greek flag The national flag of Greece, popularly referred to as the "blue and white one" ( el, Γαλανόλευκη, ) or the "sky blue and white" (, ), is officially recognised by Greece as one of its national symbols and has nine equal horizontal strip ...

. It also features 3 Daihatsu 6DL-28 electric engines of 1,800 ps each (5,400ps) and 3 1500KVA FEK55E-10 generators. The ship belongs to the Sing-Lloyd class.

History

1990–2011: construction and first years

The ship was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kobe, Japan. She was launched on 8 November 1990. The ship was originally named ''Ishikari'' after a river in Hokkaido and had to replace an older ship named Ishikari, who was sold in Strintzis Lines by 1990. 7. Delivered on 18 March 1998 at

Taiheiyō Ferry The is a privately-owned cruiseferry operator connecting Nagoya, Sendai, and Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Tomakomai in Japan. It is a subsidiary of the Nagoya-based Meitetsu Group, a group of companies that focuses primarily on rail transport in the Ch� ...

(Pacific Ferry Co). She was routed on the line

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

Tomakomai is a city and port in Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the largest city in the Iburi Subprefecture, and the fourth largest city in Hokkaido. As of 29 February 2012, it had an estimated population of 174,216, with 83,836 households, ...

, but was also used as a cruiser on the Ogasawara islands.

2010–2018: Weihai Ferry

In March 2011, she was sold to Golden Spring Enterprise,

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

and Chinese Wanfang International Shipmanagement and renamed to ''GRAND SPRING'' for an amount of $8 million. After its purchase, modernization and maintenance works took place. At this time, she was routed on Wehai- Pyoengtaek line, connecting

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

with

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, before moving to Great Promise Industrial HK, Panama in February 2012. In 2015, she was laid up in

Weihai Weihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport in easternmost Shandong province. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow Sea to the east, and is the closest Chinese city to South Korea. Weihai's popula ...

, China and in February 2016 she raised the Sierra Leone flag, with

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

being its homeport. At this time, South Korean Gwangyang Line planned to route her in the Gwangyang-Shimonosheki line, connecting South Korea with Japan. However, the project failed and the ship was completely abandoned.

2018–present: Cyprus

In March 2018, she was sold to Alphaglobe Shipping of Limassol, Cyprus, with management by ANEK Lines and renamed ''Asterion II'', before being repaired and refurbished by Naval Works Voudouris at Perama. Once most of the work was completed, the ship was drydocked and painted in the ANEK LINES livery. On 18 June the ship departed for the port of Patras where for a few days, the retrofit continued. On 28 June, after a few postponements, it went into service replacing Asterion, which was chartered from Brittany Ferries, and

Elyros Elyrus or Elyros ( grc, Ἔλυρος) was a town of ancient Crete, which the ''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' places between Cydonia and Lissus. It had a harbour, Syia (Συΐα), situated on the south coast of the island, 60 stadia west of Poecila ...

Route

Asterion II serves the ferry line

Patras ) , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , timezone1 = EET , utc_offset1 = +2 , ...

- Igoumenitsa-

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

References

{{reflist

External links

F / B ASTERION II at Anek Lines
Ferries of Greece 1990 ships Ships of ANEK Lines Ro-ro ships Ships built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries