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F/B Palladio

Photo from Commis’s collection, Venice #5967

Ship	Palladio (1989)	Building Spec.	Fincantieri – Cantieri Navali Italiani, Ancona, Italy, 1989 – N° 5864
Call Sign	ICZE	IMO Number	8705694
GRT	10.977	DWT	2.300
Dimensions	122 x 19,4 x 5,31	Engines	2 Fiat-GMT A420.6L, 7.059 kW
Speed	15 knots (max 17 knots)	Passengers	1.100
Beds	348 in 158 cabins	Cars	276
Lane Metres	400	Sister Ships	Laurana Sansovino
Registry Port	Venice	Flag	Italian
Former Names/Own.
New Names/Own.	Palladio – Siremar Sicilia Regionale Marittima 2004-08/2012 Chartered to Tirrenia divisione Adriatica 2004 Palladio – Siremar Compagnia delle Isole 08/2012-03/2016 Scrapped at Aliaga as “Palladio” 03/2016
Line

Introduced in 1989, was the first of a pair of sisters, while later also a third sister vessel joined the family. The ferry was designed under the “economy” keyword: her internal spaces and furnishings have a quite low-quality standards, recalling the poor design of some 1960s’s costructions, even if they were sometimes appreciated; her mechanical standard was very poor: no double-bottom hull, no stern thrusters, no bow thrusters and, above all, a cruise speed of 15/16 knots, while the top speed was 17, a feature chosen to have very-low operating costs on services where a great speed was not required as those operated at the time of the delivery: Trieste – Durres, Trieste – Zadar, Venice – Zadar, Venice – Split, Ancona – Zadar, Ancona – Split, Ancona – Dubrovnik – Bari; but if the low speed was not a problem on the routes operated in monopoly service or with the older vessels of Strintzis Lines and Jadrolinija as competitors, it became so when, a few years later, was redeployed on the Italy - Greece link together with the sister “Sansovino”. The question is, anyway, how was it possible that the ferry costed 90 billions of Italian Lires in 1989, which, according to Istat, the Italian National Institute for Statistics, are 85 millions Euros of 2009. In 1994, after the introduction of F/B Egitto Express on Brindisi routes, was substituted on her originary link Brindisi - Corfu - Igoumenitsa by the “Sansovino” and placed on Bari - Durres line. Again on Italy - Greece in 1997 replacing F/B Laurana (Brindisi - Corfu - Igoumenitsa - Patras), soon returned to Italy - Albania line, which was operated with F/B Laurana until June 2003 when, after the sale of “Espresso Venezia” and the disposal of “Sansovino” to the Sicilian local operator Si.Re.Mar., was diverted on Ancona services, sailing to Split, Bar and Durres, then, from July 2004, sailing only to Split; the strong rumours that wanted her to be acquired by Ventouris family to link Rafina with Andros, Tinos, Mykonos, Ikaria and Samos remained only rumours. On September 2004 was repainted with Siremar colours, being transferred to the Sicilian company part of Tirrenia Group which links Sicily with smaller islands of Sicily district. The ferry was also equipped with stern thrusters; she started serving the Porto Empedocle – Linosa – Lampedusa line in December after a short final spell in Adriatic between Ancona and Split. It’s funny to notice that the Siremar livery applied to the ferry was not in use anym ore, but lasted for almost three years on the ferry, before being repainted again. The service to Linosa and Lampedusa lasted only a week when, due to problems occurred to the ferry “Vincenzo Florio”, was moved on Naples – Palermo service of Tirrenia; however her trailer capacity was not adequate and, after a month, was back in Siremar hands where she serves alternatively the Naples – Eolie islands – Milazzo or the Porto Empedocle – Linosa – Lampedusa lines. On this latter service the “Palladio” was involved in an incredible accident: on March 6^th, 2010, during the mooring operations at Porto Empedocle, the stern ramp opened itself, probably due to a broken rope, and falled sinking into the sea, just between the ferry and the quay: luckily the hull of the ferry was not damaged and the passengers were later safely disembarked by a side door, being only forced to wait 24 hours to get back their cars which were “trapped” in the garage of the ferry. This accident was only the first happened in a long serie of misfortunes: on August 2012 a main engine had a fault, which led also to a strong scuffle between the crew and the angry passengers which were left stranded; after a long period out of service, the “Palladio” was back, and on February 6^th, 2013, while sailing from Pelagian islands to Porto Empedocle, a fire broke out in the engine room, when the vessel was four nautical miles far from Sicily, it seems due to the explosion of a fuel pipe, which spreaded fuel on hot surfaces. Luckily, this didn’t had consequences for the 37 passengers and the crew, but the “Palladio” needed the assistance of a tug to reach the port. After almost a year from the fire, Siremar signed an agreement with Fincantieri Palermo to replace the engines and the generators of the ferry with more ecological units, but the works never started and the “Palladio” appeared in sales lists, being offered for scrap, from 2015. The sale agreement was finalized in March 2016, and the ferry arrived at Aliaga a couple of weeks later, where the scrap works began. This was the end of the “Palladio”, happened at 27 years of age, which is very early for a ferry, and should be considered as a sign about how this ferry was a wrong choice for the company.

Photo Gallery

Ship cutaway diagram	Split, 1989	Corfu, 12/07/1997	Patras, 01/09/1997		Ancona, 04/10/2003
From Jeanburlon’s collection	Fleet File Rotterdam	Michele Lulurgas	Michele Lulurgas	Gunnar Menzer	Michele Lulurgas
		Durres	Durres
		Erald Spahiu	Erald Spahiu

ADRIATICA – Palladio (1989-2004)

Ancona, 24/11/2004	Porto Empedocle
Michele Lulurgas	Daniele Alletto

SI.RE.MAR. – Palladio (2004-2007)

Lampedusa, 01/09/2010	Palermo, 05/01/2016
Gianpaolo Pesarini	Carsten Dettmer

SI.RE.MAR. / SIREMAR Compagnia delle Isole – Palladio (2010)

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