She was built in 1978 as the
Prinses Beatrix by Verolme Shipyard, in
Heusden, the
Netherlands and worked for
Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland on its joint
Sealink route between Hook of Holland and Harwich, Parkeston Quay. She was named and launched by
Princess Beatrix on 14 January 1978.
Brittany Ferries bought the vessel on 1 October 1985 and, after chartering the vessel for a year back to SMZ, renamed her
Duc de Normandie, operating between
Portsmouth and
Ouistreham from 5 June 1986. The ferry sailed alongside on its favoured route to
Ouistreham. On 10 July 2002, she was transferred to the
Plymouth-
Roscoff route, replacing the . She ended her Brittany Ferries career on this route, her final sailing being on 30 September 2004. Brittany Ferries sold her in 2005 to
TransEuropa Ferries, operating between
Port of Ramsgate and
Ostend under the name
Wisteria. In 2006 she was chartered to
Ferrimaroc and
Acciona Trasmeditarranea for use on their Almeria (Spain) to Nador (Morocco) route. The vessel sailed on the Nador-Almeria route until September 2013 under the name
Vronskiy, where it had operated till 2008 during the summer-season while Transeuropa Ferries operated it on the Oostend-Ramsgate route during the rest of the year. Until 2013 the owner of the ship was Wisteria Hawthorn Shipping but after TEF went bankrupt in April 2013 it was sold to Nizhniy Shipping, which renamed it
Vronskiy, although the existing charter to Acciona was continued. The
Vronskiy then operated on the route Algeciras–Tanger except during the high-summer season when she operated the Nador-Almeria route. == In the media ==