VITSENTZOS KORNAROS (ΒΙΤΣΕΝΤΖΟΣ ΚΟΡΝΑΡΟΣ)

-LANE Sea Lines (1994-2020)

Built in 1976, scrapped in 2020 (age 44). Was registered in Agios Nikolaos. 

A historic Greek ferry, the VITSENTZOS KORNAROS was built in 1976 in Denmark for the British company Townsend Thoresen as the VIKING VISCOUNT. She began service between Belgium and the United Kingdom on the North Sea, on the Zeebrugge-Felixtowe line. In 1986 she was deployed on the Le Havre-Portsmouth line on the Channel. She was transferred to P&O European Ferries (known as P&O Ferries since 2002) in 1987, was inserted on the Cherbourg-Portsmouth line, and was renamed PRIDE OF WINCHESTER in 1989. She continued service on the Channel, always on the Cherbourg-Southampton line, until 1994. That same year she was sold to the newly-established and Lasithi-based Cretan company LANE Lines (which became LANE Sea Lines in 2006). She was converted in Piraeus and in Perama, was renamed VITSENTZOS KORNAROS, and was introduced on the Piraeus-Milos-Agios Nikolaos-Siteia line. Following a successful first summer, her service was extended to the Piraeus-Milos-Agios Nikolaos-Siteia-Kasos-Karpathos lifeline in 1995, and then to the Piraeus-Milos-Agios Nikolaos-Siteia-Kasos-Karpathos-Chalki-Rhodes-Castellorizon lifeline in 1999. In 2003 she began operating on the Piraeus-Milos-Santorini-Heraklion-Agios Nikolaos-Siteia-Kasos-Karpathos-Chalki-Rhodes-Castellorizon lifeline. From 2004 to 2007, she operated on the Piraeus-Milos-Santorini-Heraklion-Agios Nikolaos-Siteia-Kasos-Karpathos-Chalki-Rhodes-Castellorizon lifeline, as well as on the Alexandroupolis-Samothraki-Limnos-Mytilene-Chios-Samos-Kalymnos-Kos-Rhodes lifeline on the Northeast Aegean Sea and the Dodecanese. In the summer of 2008 she solely operated on the Piraeus-Milos-Santorini-Heraklion-Agios Nikolaos-Siteia-Kasos-Karpathos-Chalki-Rhodes-Castellorizon lifeline. In 2009 she was transferred to the Peloponnese and Kythira-Antikythira lifelines, in order to cover the area which had been abandoned by the company ANEN Lines due to financial difficulties faced by the latter. She began service on the Piraeus-Gytheion-Kalamata-Kythira-Antikythira-Kissamos-Rethymnon lifeline. She remained on that line in 2010, while also simultaneously operating on the Piraeus-Milos-Folegandros-Sikinos-Ios-Santorini-Anafi line on the Cyclades. In 2011 her lifeline itinerary was modified with the addition of the port of Monemvasia, which meant that she operated on the Piraeus-Monemvasia-Gytheion-Kalamata-Kythira-Antikythira-Kissamos lifeline. She collided with the EUROPEAN EXPRESS of NEL Lines in Piraeus that same year. After the summer of 2013 she left the Piraeus-Milos-Folegandros-Sikinos-Ios-Santorini-Anafi line in order to fully commit to the Peloponnese and Kythira-Antikythira lifelines, and she also stopped making calls in Monemvasia. She was therefore on the Piraeus-Gytheion-Kalamata-Kythira-Antikythira-Kissamos lifeline for the rest of her career. She grounded off in Kasos in 2015, while also colliding with that same island's pier in 2016. In 2017, shortly after returning from her refit to her summer service on the lifeline, she suffered a major engine failure which kept her out for the entire summer. LANE Sea Lines' operating license on the lifeline was subsequently stripped, and the ship was subsequently laid-up in Salamina. In 2020, after three years of lay-up and 26 legendary years in the Greek coastal service, she was sold for scrap to Turkey, leaving Greece at the age of 44.

PHOTOS (2013, 2015, 2016, 2018):