Troopship M.V. "Keren"  
       
  Built: Cammell Laird & Company Ltd., Birkenhead  
  ON: 363552  
Dimensions: 130.08 (BB) x 22.08 x 5.284 metres
  Tonnage: Gross: 8987    Net: 4697  
  Propulsion: Four SWD 8cyl 410TM oil engines by Stork-Werkspoor Diesel, Amsterdam, Holland. Single reduction geared to two variable pitch propellers   
  Type: English Channel passenger/car ferry  
  Launched: 14/11/1973  (Yard No. 1361) as St.Edmund for Passtruck Shipping Co. Ltd., British Railways Board, London  
  Completed: 12/1974  
  Purchased: 16/2/1983 by the Government of the United Kingdom (Secretary of State for War) for £7,750,000, and arrived 28/2/1983 in the Tyne for refitting by Tyne Shiprepair Ltd.
Blue Star Ship Management were appointed managers, but as a result of an industrial dispute she was commissioned 1/4/1983 as H.M.S. "Keren" briefly. Transferred back to the M.N. manning following resolution of industrial dispute.
 
  Sold: Cenargo and renamed Scirocco. Operated by Ferrimaroc on an all-year round ro/ro ferry service between the ports of Almeria, in southern Spain, and Nador, in north eastern Morocco.  
     
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  Keren  
  M.V. Keren - Photograph © Ministry of Defence  
     
 

Formerly the British Railways Cross Channel ferry the St.Edmund, she was chartered by the British Ministry of Defence in the aftermath of the Falkland War in 1982. Managed by Blue Star Ship Management Ltd., Liverpool, she operated on a regular trooping run between Ascension Island and Port Stanley, capital of the Falkland Islands

 
 

With the addition of extra refrigerated storage carried in the car decks and a water osmosis plant, she carried approximately 1000 military personnel. The "passengers" being ferried to and from the vessel by helicopter, using the added helicopter landing deck which can be seen aft of the funnel.

 
 
"Keren" at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands - Click to enlarge image
With the completion of the new military airport at Mount Pleasant (Falkland Islands), enabling wide bodied jets airliners to land, her services were no longer required and she was sold to the Cenargo Group who operate the Ferrimaroc service between Almeria, in southern Spain, and Nador, in north eastern Morocco.
 
     
  M.V. Scirroco  
     
  M.V. Scirroco  
  As Ferrimaroc's Scirocco  
     
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  Updated: 18-02-2008