Largest in this registry
#18,799
of 84,014 with a recorded tonnage
Largest ferry
#53
of 882 of this type with a recorded tonnage
Fleet rank
—
No operator attributed to this ship
In brief
About Ariadne
Ariadne (in Greek : Αριάδνη, Ariádni ) is a ferry belonging to Attica group. Built from 1995 to 1996 at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard in Shimonoseki for the Japanese company Higashi Nihon Ferry, it was originally named Rainbow Bell (れいんぼうべる, Reinbō Beru) . Commissioned in April 1996 between Niigata Prefecture on Honshu Island and Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu Island, its operation struggled to become profitable and was discontinued in 2001. Purchased in 2004 by Marine Express, it was renamed Ferry Himuka (フェリーひむか, Ferī Himuka) and assigned to the Osaka – Miyazaki Prefecture route, also on Kyushu Island. Transferred in 2005 to Miyazaki Car Ferry following Marine Express's bankruptcy, it was withdrawn from service the following year and sold to the Greek company Hellenic Seaways . Renamed Ariadne, it underwent a major refit aimed at increasing its capacity and improving passenger comfort. In service in the Mediterranean since September 2007, it has been chartered several times by other companies, in particular Algérie Ferries during the summers of 2009 to 2013 or more recently Tirrenia between 2018 and 2021. Transferred to Superfast Ferries in December 2023, it currently sails between Greece and Italy.
Vessel particulars
Identification and dimensions
Every value is as recorded in the source. Blanks are values the source does not hold — none is estimated from a sister ship or a class average.
Identification
- IMO number
- 9135262
- IMO check digit
- Valid
- MMSI
- 240580000
- Call sign
- SVST
- Flag state
- Japan
- Port of registry
- —
- Vessel class
- —
- Status
- in service
Construction
- Type
- Ferry
- Builder
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
- Yard number
- Launched
- —
- Year built
- 1996
- Designed to carry
- —
- Owner
- Kyuetsu Ferry Co. (1996–2005)
- Operator on record
- Minoan Lines (2008)
Measurements
- Gross tonnage
- 30,882
- Net tonnage
- —
- Displacement
- —
- Length overall
- 196.0 m
- Beam
- 27.0 m
- Draft
- 6.7 m
- Service speed
- 21.5 kn
- Passenger capacity
- 2,045
In context
How Ariadne compares
Every figure in this section is a count, a rank or a percentile over vessels actually held in this registry — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.
At 30,882 gross tons, Ariadne is the 18,799th largest of the 84,014 vessels in this registry that report a tonnage. The median across that set is 5,994 GT, so this hull is about 5.2 times the typical vessel on record here. The largest measures 499,167 GT.
Among the 1,234 ferrys held here, it ranks 53rd by tonnage — larger than 94% of that group. Their median tonnage is 3,908 GT, and the largest tenth begin at 25,454 GT. The flag most often flown by this group is Japan (241 ships). The yard that appears most often against it is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, with 34 hulls on record.
Japan is the country of registry for 2,663 vessels in this directory, of which Ariadne is the 282nd largest by tonnage. The most common class under that flag is vessels this registry holds no type classification for (1,534 ships), and the median vessel measures 764 GT. Browse every ship flagged Japan.
Narrowing to both dimensions at once, this registry holds 241 ferrys flying the Japan flag, of which 2 are larger by tonnage.
Ariadne was built in 1996, making it 30 years old. It is one of 1,254 hulls in this registry delivered that year, a cohort whose median tonnage is 7,254 GT; within it this ship is the 235th largest. Across the whole of the 1990s the registry holds 12,006 vessels, median 4,956 GT. The median build year across the entire registry is 1995.
The registry attributes 104 vessels to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, with a median tonnage of 21,438 GT, delivered between 1948 and 2020. See the rest of that yard’s output.
At 196.0 m overall, Ariadne is 92.0 m longer than the 104.0 m median for ferrys on record, with a beam of 27.0 m and a draft of 6.7 m.
IMO numbers are issued in broadly chronological blocks. Within 500 either side of 9135262 this registry holds 47 other vessels, whose median build year is 1996 and which range from 1995 to 1998. That places this hull’s registration in the same part of the series, consistent with its recorded build year of 1996.
Its IMO number, 9135262, carries its own check digit. The first six digits are weighted seven down to two and summed — 9×7 + 1×6 + 3×5 + 5×4 + 2×3 + 6×2 = 122 — and the last digit of that total, 2, must equal the seventh digit, 2. It does, so this number is well formed.
Nearest by tonnage among ferrys
| Ship | Built | Gross tonnage |
|---|---|---|
| GNV Antares | 1987 | 31,598 |
| MS King Seaways | 1987 | 31,360 |
| Méditerranée | 1989 | 30,985 |
| Ariadne (this ship) | 1996 | 30,882 |
| Nissos Samos | 1988 | 30,694 |
| Ocean | 1991 | 30,413 |
| GNV Azzurra | 1981 | 30,317 |
Same yard, same years
Built alongside at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
No ship class is recorded for this vessel, so these are not asserted to be sister ships — they are contemporaries from the same builder, shown because that is what the data supports.
Provenance
Where this page comes from
Vessel recordWikidata, released under CC0, keyed on this ship’s IMO number.
Written summaryQuoted from Ariadne (1996 ship) on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.
PhotographBy AlgerieFerries, reused under CC BY-SA 3.0.