The former Mersey tug
Wallasey (1977), ashore for refit in a shipyard on the Greek island of Salamis.
RICHARD SEVILLE
A former Mersey-based tug has been refitted for further service in Greece, with her first assignment being to deliver a one-time UK ferry to the breakers in Turkey. Protug 42 was built as Wallasey for Alexandra Towage in 1977, and was sold to Greek owners as Karapiperis 14 in 1996. In September 2023 she passed to ProMarine and was refitted at Spanopoulos Yards on Salamis.
Once she had been put back in the water, she was dispatched to take the 1976-built Taxiarchis to Aliaga. The last remaining conventional ferry laid up from the bankrupt NEL Lines fleet, Taxiarchis was built as the freighter Union Hobart, and after being converted into a passenger ferry, operated from 1995 to 1996 on the Sheerness-Vlissingen route as Euromantique for the short-lived Euroway operation.