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| M v Midnight Merchant / El Greco / European Endeavour | |||
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© Ray Goodfellow Steel twin screw motor vessel built in 2000, by Astilleros Espanoles S.A. (AESA) Seville, Spain, (Yard No. 290) for Cenargo (owners of Norsemerchant Ferries plc) as a passenger roll-on roll-off commercial freight ferry. D i m e n s i o n s / T e c h n i c a l D a t a MMSI Number - 235089000 IMO Number - 9181106 Length on deck - 179.5 m (overall) Breadth of hull - 25.24 m (moulded) Draught - 6.50 m Tonnage - 22,152 gross 6,614 net 7,396 deadweight Engines - Four 9-cylinder Wartsila 9L38 diesels Power - 23760 kW Speed - 22.5 knots Capacity - 214 passengers, 144 (13.5 m ) commercial trailers Call Sign - ZQPM9 (Until 2006), ECLT (2006), 2AFI3 (2007) Ports of Registry - Dover (Until August 2006), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Until October 2007), London (Present) Sister Ships: Brave Merchant/Blanca Del Mar , Dawn Merchant/ Pau Casels , Zurbaran/Northern Merchant , Murillo H i s t o r y / R e m a r k s September 2000: Delivered to Merchant Ferries, Dover, England (Cenargo International Ltd, Nassau, Bahamas).
Profile of the Midnight Merchant (DFP Archive) September 20th 2000: Arrived at Appledore Shipbuilders, Falmouth for fitting out.
Nigel Thornton Collection October 5th 2000: Commenced service for Norfolkline between Dover - Dunkerque. April 2002: Rebuilt at ARNO, Dunkerque. © Mark Leiper July 1st 2004: Announcement made that Norfolkline’s three Channel Ferries would be run by a newly-formed shipping group in a multi-million pound deal. Indo-China Ship Management (UK) had won the contract to operate and crew the ships. January 12th 2005: Rotterdam for refit © Ray Goodfellow June 5th 2005: To emergency dry dock at Damen Shipyard, Schiedam. The cause was unknown but was believed to be leaks around the A-frames. © Ray Goodfellow (left) and © Nigel Thornton (middle and right) March 26th 2006: Announcement that Trasmed was to charter the NORTHERN MERCHANT and MIDNIGHT MERCHANT for the Barcelona - Palma route. July 28th 2006: All 3 new sisters running from 1200 hrs today. Retired to ARNO Dunkerque for refit prior to transfer to the Mediterranean. The Midnight Merchant becomes the El Greco in Dunkerque, France
ARNO Dunkerque July/August 2006. © Ed Connell August 2006: Chartered to Acciona Trasmediterranea, Spain August 2006: Renamed EL GRECO. Transferred to Spanish flag, home port Santa Cruz De Tenerife. August 22nd 2006: Left Dunkerque bound for Spain.
El Greco departing Dunkerque. © Robert Fournier August 2006: Commenced service between Barcelona - Palma de Mallorca.
El Greco berthed in Palma de Mallorca 28/8/06. © Carlos Moreno June 26th 2007: " P&O Ferries today announces that it has agreed to purchase a dedicated freight ferry in order to meet the growing demand for space from haulage customers throughout its operations. The El Greco will be re-named the European Endeavour and will fly the red ensign, registered in London. October 2007: The El Greco entered the Union Naval dry dock in Barcelona, Spain for refit.
© Carlos Poveda (Visual Ships) Upon completion of her refit she will proceed to Liverpool to take up service on P&O Irish Sea's Dublin service. It is understood that due to a problems with her Calais `port fit' she will not enter service at Dover until December 2007/January 2008. 28th October 2007: The European Endeavour arrives in Liverpool from Barcelona.
© Ian Collard 6th November 2007: The European Endeavour enters service between Liverpool and Dublin.
© Celine Ruello November 2007: Registered owner and ship manager : P&O Ferries Ltd, Dover, United Kingdom 16th December 2007: Stood down from the Liverpool - Dublin. 17th December 2007: Entered dry dock No 3 at A&P Falmouth shipyard for Calais port fit work to be completed out on her bow. 10th January 2008: The European Endeavour departed Falmouth for berthing trials at the French port of Calais.
© Ray Goodfellow 11th January 2008: The `Endeavour' arrived at the French port of Calais and after completing berthing trials she took up service on her first commercial crossing to Dover. Latter the same evening she departed Dover on her first commercial crossing to Calais. February 2008: With the Pride of Canterbury damaged the European Endeavour is retained at Dover to operate additional freight sailings to Calais. Instead of three trips every 24 hours she is now rostered to make four trips every 24 hrs. 22nd March 2008: Whilst alongside berth one at the Eastern docks in Dover the Endeavour parted her moorings in strong Northerly gales. She dropped both of her anchors but drifted eventually becoming lodged against the Eastern Arm before continuing to drift into the bay. Engines were eventually started and the Dover Harbour Board tug `DHB Dauntless' was made fast to aid her back to berth one.
A special thanks to Ed Connell (Ships in the Port of Dover) for his photographs and his commentary " The Endeavour scraped down the Eastern Arm at right angles to the quay until her bow lodged against the knuckle on the end of the arm whereupon she rotated and drifted stern first across the entrance. At this point, DHB Doughty arrived in a cloud of spray, having hurtled across from the Western Docks, and commenced to assist. The Endeavour had both anchors down and, with a line to the tug, came to rest off the knuckle on the southern breakwater. Doughty then assisted her back to her berth on the Eastern Arm." August 29th 2008: Whilst manoeuvring in the port of Calais the vessel made heavy contact with berth number 7. "I just passed near the EE and the damages are very significant. The EE's cow catcher is destroyed. We can see a part of the cow catcher fallen on the berth. She was loaded when she left Calais' harbour and during her swing, she may lost her propulsion, decided to anchor and crashed into berth n°7. At this time, she is still in berth n°7 and she can not discharge because her cow catcher is destroyed." | |||
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| All information is believed to be correct and no responsibility is accepted for errors and omissions. | |||
| We would like to thank: Ed Connell (Ships in the Port of Dover), Mark Leiper, Robert Fournier, Ian Collard, Celine Ruello, Carlos Poveda (Visual Ships) and Carlos Moreno for there help in compiling this feature. | |||
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