Sorrento at Valletta, 13 January 2010

This is an interesting small set. We were going through old photos with the wife to put in our family photo album, and I came across these ones taken at Valletta, Malta when we were there in January 2010. I remembered photographing just one passenger vessel during our visit (Malta in the winter is, apparently, not that big of a cruise destination - or at least this used to be the case) but I had no idea it was this interesting.

Sorrento

IMO 9264312
Name history: Eurostar Valencia, Sorrento
Built 2003, C.N. "Visentini" Donada, Italy
Tonnage 26 000 GT
Length 186,00 m
Width 25,60 m
Draught 6,50 m
1 000 passengers
400 passenger berths
160 cars
2 250 lane metres
2 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 18 900 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22,5 knots

The Sorrento was, of course, a member of the uniquituous Vinsentini-class of ropaxes, built by the shipyard with the same name in Italy. She was built in 2003 as the Eurostar Valencia for Grimaldi Lines' service between Salerno and Valencia, as well as Salermo to Tunis via Palermo and Valletta. In 2005 the ship was tranferred to the new Grimaldi-Louis Dreyfus joint service between Civitavecchia and Toulon, but also sailed on routes linking Civitavecchia to Corsican ports. She retained the Grimaldi livery, but with Grimaldi-Louis Dreyfus hull and funnel markings.

In November 2006 the ship was renamed Sorrento, but this did not have an effect on her route for the time being. From 2008 she again served on the routes from various Italian ports to Tunis, occasionally calling en-route at Valletta. The photos below were taken during this era. In summer 2010 the ship moved to the livorno-Valencia route, then in spring 2012 tranferring to the Adriatic (Brindisi-Igoumenitsa-Patras).

In March 2013, the Sorrento was chartered to Acciona Trasmediterránea for service between Valencia and Palma da Mallorca. She was only partially painted in Trasmediterránea colour and retained her distinctly Italian name. On 28 April 2015, a fire broke outboard shortly after the ship departed Palma de Mallorca. Everyone onboard were safely evacuated, but the ship was a total loss, and was eventually scrapped in Aliaga, Turkey in 2016. The accident took place only a few months after the Sorrento's sister ship Norman Atlantic suffered a similar (albeit more widely publicized) fate on the Adriatic.

But on to the photos, which show the Sorrento departing Valletta Grand Harbour on 13 January 2010. Photograped from Birgu (Vittoriosa). As always, click on the image to see it in larger size.

Sorrento with Valletta in the background. Come to think of it, I haven't done a panoramic photo in a while.

Not a bad livery, to be fair. I also quite like the GLD funnel symbol.

Kships will return in about a week with photos from the brand-new Megastar.