1990s: Construction and first years The ship was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and was launched on 5 June 1997. The ship was originally named
Sunflower Tsukuba, as many KK Blue Highway Line ships had the title "Sunflower" before their name, along with a red sun with orange rays to their livery. The ship was finished on 18 October 1997. It was delivered on 19 January 1998 to KK Blue Highway Line and deployed on the route between
Ōarai and
Tomakomai.
2000s: Mol Ferry, Higashi Nihon Ferry and arrival at Greece In April 2002, the ferry was transferred to
Mol Ferry, and then in 2006 to Higashi Nihon Nihon Ferry, when it was renamed
Ferry Tsukuba. It was acquired by ANEK in 2007 and renamed
Elyros. On 27 August 2007, she arrived at Perama for retrofitting in order to comply with the requirements of the Mediterranean routes. The retrofit was completed in August 2008. On 26 September, she was inaugurated at 5:30 in Piraeus and on the 28th of the same month she was launched on the line between
Piraeus and
Chania.
2010-present: charters livery in
Marseille in 2016 During the Libyan conflict in 2014, the Libyan Parliament was housed on the
Elyros, which was sailing off the coast of Tombok in eastern Libya for the security of parliamentarians. The vessel was chartered from 2 September 2014 until 25 of the same month. The ship has been chartered three times to
Algerie Ferries in the summers of 2016, 2017 and 2018, linking
Algiers to
Alicante and
Marseille. The first charter (2016) took place from 26 June 2016 until 22 September of the same year. The second (2017) began in June 2017 until September of the same year. The third began in June 2018 and was completed in September of the same year and returned to the Chania-Piraeus line on the 13th of the month. == References ==