Just before the Chinese New Year or ‘Spring Festival’, Jinling Shipyard has handed over yard number 408 to DFDS on 31 January. The 6,700-lanemetre ro-ro freighter – the first in a series of six identical ships – has temporarily been named GOTHIA SEAWAYS and will be renamed prior to taking up service between Istanbul and Trieste in March, the company said in its release.
As earlier reported, the ships in the U.N. Ro-Ro fleet will gradually be renamed, obtaining the Seaways suffix, and painted in the DFDS livery with DFDS lettering on the funnel. So, in addition to the renaming, it’s likely that GOTHIA SEAWAYS’s funnels will also be repainted. Last but not least, the 237.4m long and 33.0m beam ship will be transferred from the Danish to the Turkish register.
“GOTHIA SEAWAYS will be renamed in accordance with the beautiful principle of naming the ships after local sites that reflect the rich cultural history of the region,” Peder Gellert, DFDS’s EVP and Head of the Ferry Division, told when the temporary name of the first ship was officially revealed. “The new name, which will be used along with Seaways, will be one of the names suggested by [BU Mediterranean Operation Superintendent] Hasan Göler in a naming competition. The list includes Troy, Cappadocia, Olympos, Ephesus, Assos, Artemis, Aspendos, Dardanelles, Zeugma, Sumela, Myra and Pergamon,” Gellert added.