As the first vessel to be used in the new Euro-Aegean service of the Grimaldi Lines shipping company, the RoRo ship Grande Sicilia was dispatched at Hamburg's Unikai Terminal on 27 December 2008.
Together with its sister ship the Grande Italia, the Grande Sicilia forms part of a new service offering fortnightly departures from Hamburg in the first instance. The ports of call are Setubal, Valencia, Leghorn, Civitavecchia, Salerno, Piraeus, Beirut, Lattakia (only when carrying sufficient cargo), Gemlik and Alexandria. In transshipment Grimaldi also serves the ports of Tunis, La Goulette, Tripoli (Libya), Misurata, Limassol, Mersin and Tripoli (Lebanon).
The ships that are used allow for the loading of all kinds of RoRo units, like vehicles and self-propelled construction machines, as well as conventional and project cargo with item weights of up to 75 tons, including any rolltrailers that may be used. With a gross register tonnage of 38,650, the Grande Sicilia has a length of 577 ft, a breadth of 102 ft and a maximum draught of 29 ft. It is registered at the Italian port of Palermo. Its eleven decks can carry up to 4500 vehicles or other RoRo cargo.
(www.portofhamburg.com)