Blue Carrier 2
 Blue Carrier 2 in Rhodes | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name |
|
| Owner |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry |
|
| Route | Piraeus – Syros – Samos – Kalymnos – Kos – Symi – Rhodes (freight transport) |
| Builder | Kawasaki Sakaide Works (Sakaide, Japan) |
| Launched | 1997 |
| Completed | 1997 |
| Acquired | 2023 (by Attica Group) |
| Maiden voyage | 1997 |
| In service |
|
| Identification |
|
| Status | In service |
| Notes | Operating dedicated cargo/freight routes to support passenger ferry schedules in the Dodecanese and Aegean. |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage |
|
| Length | 162.49 m (533 ft 1 in) (overall) |
| Beam | 25.60 m (84 ft 0 in) |
| Draft | 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Speed | 17.5 knots (service) |
| Capacity |
|
Blue Carrier 2 is a roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) cargo ship owned by the Greek shipping conglomerate Attica Group and operated under their Blue Star Ferries brand. Originally built in Japan in 1997 as the Clementine for the Belgian-Luxembourgish company Cobelfret, the ship spent over two decades operating cargo routes across the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay.
Service
[edit]The ferry, the second of a series of six sister vessels for the transport of rolling freight commissioned by Cobelfret from the Kawasaki Heavy Industries shipyard in Sakaide, was launched on 25 October 1996 as Clementine and delivered on 28 February 1997 to the Belgian company, from which she was immediately chartered for the transfer voyage to the Japanese company Nippon Yusen Kaisha, who used her to transfer 799 from Singapore to Piraeus, Lisbon, Antwerp and Bremerhaven, where she arrived on 8 April, starting shortly afterwards the freight service on the routes between Zeebrugge and Purfleet-on-Thames, in Essex, on behalf of the shipowner.[1][2]
In the following years, the ferry continued to serve the route regularly, alternating it with occasional employment in other freight connections of the company's network in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, or charters, such as from 5 April to June 2013, when it was chartered to RMR Shipping, which used it for a trip between Dublin, Purfleet-on-Thames, Antwerp and Lagos, or from 16 July of the same year to November 2014, period in which it was instead leased to DFDS for the service between Cuxhaven and Immingham, which was repeated from January to June 2015. In 2018 it was instead used in the connections between Rotterdam, Zeebrugge and Dublin, returning to call at the Irish port on a permanent basis in 2020, connecting it to Liverpool and Santander, while in the Dutch port in 2022, when it was moved to the connections between this port is Killingholme.
On 24 March 2023, after approximately twenty-six years of service in Northern Europe, the ferry was sold to the Greek conglomerate Attica Group,[3] owner of several shipping companies active in the Aegean and Adriatic, from which it was taken over on 19 July and chartered bareboat to the old owner, for whom it continued to operate until 31 December, when it was again entrusted to the new owner, who on 2 January 2024 transferred it to the ONEX Elefsis Shipyard in Eleusis, where it was subjected to a long series of renovation works and adaptation to the new service under the banner of the cargo division of the subsidiary Blue Star Ferries,[4][5][6] which renamed it Blue Carrier 2 and introduced it on 21 March 2023 in the connections between Piraeus, Samos, Kalymnos, Kos, Symi and Rhodes, alongside Blue Carrier 1.[7][8]
Sister ships
[edit]- Celestine
- Sea Caryatis
- Melusine
- Celandine
- Victorine
References
[edit]- ↑ "M/S CLEMENTINE (1997)". www.faktaomfartyg.se. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
- ↑ "Blue Carrier 2". greekpassengerships. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
- ↑ "Attica Group announced acquisition of CLEMENTINE from CLdN". Shippax. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
- ↑ "Greece's ONEX Elefsis shipyard completes transformation of RoRo Clementine into Blue Carrier 2 for new Greek owners". www.shipandoffshore.net. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
- ↑ Ακτοπλοϊα, Ελληνική (2024-03-03). "Για δεξαμενισμό το BLUE CARRIER 2 - Ελληνική Ακτοπλοϊα" (in Greek). Retrieved 2026-07-14.
- ↑ "Για δοκιμαστικά το "Blue Carrier 2" - Αρχιπέλαγος, Η 1η ναυτιλιακή πύλη ενημέρωσης στην Ελλάδα" (in Greek). 2024-03-16. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
- ↑ Ακτοπλοϊα, Ελληνική (2024-03-22). "Ξεκίνησε τα δρομολόγια του το BLUE CARRIER 2 - Ελληνική Ακτοπλοϊα" (in Greek). Retrieved 2026-07-14.
- ↑ "Ξεκίνησε δρομολόγια το BLUE CARRIER 2 - Shippress". shippress.gr (in Greek). Archived from the original on 2025-02-12. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
