MS ''A Nepita'' is a fast
ropax
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or usi ...
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 ...
for
Corsica Linea
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
. The ferry was refurbished in
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
for her new service and was returned to her original design before her
SeaFrance career and looks identical to her sisters Stena Superfast VII & VIII. Before November 2014 she operated between
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East 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 south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
and
Calais
Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...
for
DFDS Seaways France
DFDS Seaways France, trading as DFDS Seaways, and formerly known as New Channel Company A/S, is the trading name of the ferry services across the Dover Strait and English Channel operated by DFDS Seaways and formerly operated by LD Lines.
Hi ...
and between 2008 and 2012 for
SeaFrance.
Concept and construction
''A Nepita'' was the last ship in a series of four identical
ice class
Ice class refers to a notation assigned by a classification society or a national authority to denote the additional level of strengthening as well as other arrangements that enable a ship to navigate through sea ice. Some ice classes also have r ...
ed fast ferries built by HDW for Superfast Ferries' new
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
services. She was launched on 18 November 2000,
on the same date as her sisters
''Superfast VII'' and
''Superfast IX'' ''Stena Superfast X'' was delivered to her owners on 26 February 2002 and christened on the same date by Patricia Lederer, wife of the HDW project director for the Superfast ships.
Service history
''Superfast X'' entered service for Superfast Ferries on 27 February 2002 on the
Hanko Hanko may refer to
People
*August Hanko (military personnel), August Hanko, German First World War flying ace
Places
*Hanko, Finland, town and municipality
*Hanko Peninsula, Finland
*Hankø, an island in the Oslo Fjord in Norway
*The asteroid ...
–
Rostock
Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...
route. She remained on that route until 19 April 2002, when she was laid up in Kiel at HDW. On 17 May 2002, she re-entered service, on the
Rosyth–Zeebrugge route. In January and February 2004, ''Superfast X'' was rebuilt at
Fosen Mekaniske Verksted,
Fosen
Fosen is a traditional district in Trøndelag, consisting of the municipalities Osen, Roan Åfjord, Ørland, Indre Fosen, Orkland, Heim, Hitra and Frøya. The district is dominated by forested valleys, lakes, coastal cliffs but also shallow ar ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
with additional passenger berths.
On 7 August 2006, Superfast Ferries announced it had sold ''Superfast X'' to Veolia Transport for
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...
112 million. The ship was delivered to her new owners on 12 February 2007 and renamed ''Jean Nicoli''.
In March 2007, ''Jean Nicoli'' made crossings from
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
to
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
, carrying cars on board. During April the same year, she was chartered to
COTUNAV for traffic from
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
to
Tunisia
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, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
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, capital = Tunis
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, ...
. At the end of April she was laid up, initially at
La Seyne, later at Marseille. From 8 September until 2 October 2007 she was chartered to
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 ...
for service on its
Patras
)
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, timezone1 = EET
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, ...
–
Corfu
Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...
–
Igoumenitsa
Igoumenitsa ( el, Ηγουμενίτσα, ) is a coastal city in northwestern Greece. It is the capital of the regional unit of Thesprotia.
Igoumenitsa is the chief port of Thesprotia and Epirus, and one of the largest passenger ports of Greece, ...
–
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 ...
route.
On 27 December 2007, the ship was sold to SeaFrance.
In the beginning of April 2008, ''Jean Nicoli'' was delivered to SeaFrance and renamed ''SeaFrance Molière''. On 3 April 2008, she left Marseille for
Arno Dunkerque
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.
Source and route
The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennine Mountains, Apennines, and i ...
for rebuilding into a short distance ferry.
After transfer to the leasing company Sarl Poquelin Bail, she entered service with SeaFrance in freight only operation on 19 August 2008 and began passenger service on 1 September 2008.
Due to the commercial court ordering that
Seafrance be liquidated, from 16 November 2011 the ship was laid up, initially at
Dunkerque
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.[Tilbury
Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a 16th century fort and an ancie ...]
in England.
In October 2012, DFDS chartered the ship to be used on its Dover–Dunkerque crossing. During a short refit by Arno at Dunkerque she was renamed ''Dieppe Seaways'' and returned to the French registry. She re-entered service on 7 November though, following a change of plan, on the Dover-Calais route.
On 1 May 2014, ''Dieppe Seaways'' suffered a fire from an overheated boiler in the engine room as she approached Dover from Calais. All 316 passengers disembarked safely on arrival. However, in responding to the fire, seven crew members and three firefighters were injured with
flash burns.
![Stena Superfast X (2017)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Stena_Superfast_X_%282017%29.jpg)
At the end of her charter to DFDS Seaways in November 2014,
Stena Line
Stena Line is a Swedish shipping line company and one of the largest ferry operators in the world. It services Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Stena Line is a major unit of Ste ...
took possession of the vessel returning her to her original name, albeit with a Stena prefix, and sending her for an extensive refit to return the cargo arrangements to their original configuration and refurbish the interiors similar to sisterships
''Stena Superfast VII'' and
''Stena Superfast VIII'' operating on the
Cairnryan
Cairnryan ( sco, The Cairn;
gd, Machair an Sgithich) is a vi ...
(
Loch Ryan
Loch Ryan ( gd, Loch Rìoghaine, ) is a Scottish sea loch that acts as an important natural harbour for shipping, providing calm waters for ferries operating between Scotland and Northern Ireland. The town of Stranraer is the largest settleme ...
) to
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
route.
After refit the ship replaced
''MS Stena Nordica'' (which itself is being chartered to DFDS Seaways to take up the timetable ''Stena Superfast X'' previous operated) on the Holyhead–Dublin Port route on 9 March 2015. ''Stena Superfast X'' substantially increased the freight and passenger capacity on the route and coincided with the withdrawal of the
Stena HSS service to
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown.
The town was built following the 1816 legislation that allowed the building of a major port to serve Dubli ...
.
[ ] In January 2020 Stena line announced that Stena Superfast X chartered to Corsica Linea and will be renamed A Nepita to her new owners which will be delivered in March 2020. It will be serviced for new ownership in Piraeus, Greece, and will have maintenance for new service in Greece (+100 cabins and maybe scrubbers).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:A. Nepita
Ships built in Kiel
Ferries of France
2001 ships
10
Ships of the Stena Line