TAXIARCHIS (ΤΑΞΙΑΡΧΗΣ)

-NEL Lines (1999-2023)

Built in 1976, scrapped in 2023 (age 47). Was registered in Mytilene. 

 

The veteran ferry TAXIARCHIS was built in 1976 in Norway, and she began her career with Union Shipping Australia as the UNION HOBART, operating between Australia and New Zealand on the Melbourne-Hobart-Picton line. She was renamed SEAWAY HOBART in 1984, and she was transferred to the Melbourne-Hobart line. In 1993 she was sold to the Greek company AK Ventouris, one of the many Ventouris family companies at the time, for service on the Adriatic Sea. After a  conversion in Perama, she was renamed AGIA METHODIA and she began service in 1994 on the Patras-Brindisi line. Her Adriatic Sea career was however very short, as in 1995 she was sold to Eurolink, for service on the Vlissingen-Sheerness line on the Channel, being renamed EUROMANTIQUE. She was chartered to Dart Line in 1996, operating on the Vlissingen-Dartford line, before being chartered the following year to the Spanish company Isnasa, for service on the Algeciras-Tangier Med line. The charter was unsuccessful and ended in 1998 following the closure of Isnasa. She was sold in 1999 to NEL Lines, and she was renamed TAXIARCHIS. She was deployed on the Piraeus-Syros-Chios-Mytilene line. In 2001 she was deployed on the Piraeus-Chios-Mytilene-Limnos-Kavala-Thessaloniki line during the high season. In 2006, she operated on the Piraeus-Mykonos-Chios-Mytilene-Limnos line. In the summer of 2007 she was chartered to the Egyptian company Namma Lines and was deployed on the Safaga-Jeddah line on the Red Sea. She then returned to service under NEL Lines and was deployed back on the Piraeus-Chios-Mytilene line in 2008. In 2009 she was deployed on the Lavrion-Psara-Mytilene-Agios Efstratios-Limnos-Kavala line. In 2010 and in 2011 she operated on her company's Northeast Aegean Sea lifeline, on the Kavala-Limnos-Mytilene-Chios-Samos-Ikaria line. In 2012 she returned to the Lavrion-Psara-Agios Efstratios-Limnos-Kavala line, where she remained until 2015, when she was arrested by her crew in Lavrion, following her company's serious financial troubles. She stayed there until 2018, when she was towed for further lay-up in Salamina. After remaining there for five years, she was ultimately sold for scrap to Turkey in 2023, after having spent 24 years in Greece.

 

PHOTOS (2015):