HSC ''Hellenic Highspeed'' is a

high-speed craft A high-speed craft (HSC) is a high-speed water vessel for civilian use, also called a fastcraft or fast ferry. The first high-speed craft were often hydrofoils or hovercraft, but in the 1990s catamaran and monohull designs become more popu ...

owned by

Hellenic Seaways Hellenic Seaways is a Greece-based ferry company founded in 1984. Hellenic Seaways is a subsidiary of Attica Group along with Blue Star Ferries and Superfast Ferries. History ''Ceres Hellenic Shipping Enterprises'' owned by the Livanos fam ...

, having previously being owned by

Sea Containers Sea Containers was a Bermudan registered company which operated two primary business areas: transport and Shipping container, container leasing. It was founded in 1965 by James Sherwood and was initially focused on the leasing of cargo containe ...

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company

She first entered services between

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

and

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

for

subsidiary

Hoverspeed Hoverspeed was a ferry company that operated on the English Channel from 1981 until 2005. It was formed in 1981 by the merger of Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd. Its last owners were Sea Containers; the company ran a small fleet of two high-speed Se ...

in 1997, named HSC ''SuperSeaCat Two'' before moving to the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

in 1998 primarily for service between

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

but also for

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited (abbreviated to IoMSPCo or, locally, The Steam Packet ()) is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, having been founded in 1830. The company provides freight, p ...

services between

and

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

. The vessel returned to

in 1999 to reopen the

Newhaven Newhaven is a port town in the Lewes district of East Sussex, England, lying at the mouth of the River Ouse. The town developed during the Middle Ages as the nearby port of Seaford began drying up, forcing a new port to be established. A ...

Dieppe Dieppe (; ; or Old Norse ) is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England ...

route which had been closed by P&O Stena Line earlier that year. Her place on the Irish Sea was taken by her sister, ''SuperSeaCat Three''. In 2000, she once again sailed on the Irish Sea, this time between

Heysham Heysham ( ) is a coastal village in the Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, overlooking Morecambe Bay. It is a ferry port, with services to the Isle of Man and Ireland, and the site of two nuclear power stations. History Of historic ...

and

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

but again returned to Hoverspeed this time for service between Dover and Calais or Ostend operating alongside 2 of her 3 sisters. After spending some time laid up in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

she returned to service on the Newhaven-Dieppe run before being chartered to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, which had by then been sold by Sea Containers. In May 2008, it was announced that the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company had purchased ''Incat 050'' (now ''Manannan''), and it would replace ''Viking'' from the 2009 season. At the end of the 2008 season, ''Viking'' sailed to

Alexandra Dock, Liverpool Alexandra Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Bootle. Alexandra Dock consists of a main basin nearest the river wall and three branch docks to the east, wi ...

to lay-up for the winter. In January 2009, ''Viking'' left drydock to cover the passenger sailings of ''Ben-my-Chree'', which had gone into drydock for propeller repairs. After ''Ben-my-Chree'' returned to service, ''Viking'' returned to lay-up in Liverpool.

Atlânticoline

''Viking'' was expected to depart from Liverpool for her Azores charter to Atlânticoline around 5–6 July . A side-loading door that was fabricated in Portsmouth was fitted. She did not leave until 23 July due to a leak that was found when her fuel tanks were being filled for her long voyage. The port side of ''Viking'' has lost the web address, "steam-packet.com", due to re-painting following the insertion of the side-loading vehicle door. During the voyage her hull was damaged due to weather and docked at Falmouth for repairs. She finally arrived in the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

and began service on the morning of 5 August. Steam Packet masters were believed to be accompanying the ship for training purposes and then to act as the representatives.

Hellenic Seaways

''Viking'' was sold to

and was renamed ''Hellenic Wind'' in September 2009. In early 2016, ''Hellenic Wind'' was renamed ''Hellenic Highspeed''. Starting from April 2016, it operates on the

Rafina Rafina () is a suburban port town located on the eastern coast of Attica in Greece. It has a population of 14,620 inhabitants (2021 census). Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rafina-Pikermi, of which it is the ...

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

line, calling at the ports of

Tinos Tinos ( ) is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It forms part of the Cyclades archipelago. The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos. It has a land area of and a 2021 census population of 8,934 inhabitants. Tinos is famous amo ...

Mykonos Mykonos (, ; ) is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island has an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. At the 2021 census, there were 10,704 inhabitants, most of ...

Paros Paros (; ; ) is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. Part of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos (island), Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Co ...

Ios Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Santorini Santorini (, ), officially Thira (, ) or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southern ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellenic Highspeed, HSC Ferries of Greece Ships built in La Spezia MDV 1200-class fast ferries 1997 ships Ships built by Fincantieri Ferries of the Isle of Man Transport in the Azores