FERRIES and TENDERS
F/B MEDITERRANEAN SKY
She was launched in 1953 as the passenger/cargo ship CITY of YORK, one of four identical sisters built for the Ellerman Lines on their South African run. At 541 feet long, these were some of the largest and most luxurious combi liners in the Ellerman fleet, and boasted luxurious passenger facilities not often seen on other ships of this type.
In the early 1970s she was sold to the Greek Karageorgis Lines who renamed her MEDITERRANEAN SKY and completely rebuilt into a car ferry. After many years of service, she was sold again in 1995 to Golden Cruisers. She made a couple of trips to Italy however the venture would prove to be a failure and she was arrested at Patras for unpaid port fees. In 1999 she was towed and anchored in the bay of Eleusis near Athens and effectively abandoned at her moorings. In the fall of 2002, after many years of lay up, she developed a leak and an alarming list to starboard. An attempt to beach her was made, however she would eventually roll over and founder in just over 10 meters of water. Her rusting hulk still lies keeled over and half sunk in the North Western corner of the gulf.
S.S. NOMADIC
She was launched in 1911 and was designed to ferry passengers out to the ill-fated ocean liner R.M.S. TITANIC as well as her sisters during their stopovers at Cherbourg, France (along with her sister TRAFFIC). She would go on to have a long a varied career following the disaster, being used to transport passengers out to many famous liners of the day as well as being used in both world wars for various military and salvage duties.
She was taken out of service in 1968 and in the 70s converted into a floating restaurant permanently moored on the Seine in Paris. Following the restaurants closure in the late 1990s, she fell into disrepair and was seized by the harbour authorities in 2002, her future uncertain. Fortunately, she was sold and brought back to Belfast for restoration and today is on display in Titanic Quarter, the last surviving White Star vessel.