The purchase price has not been disclosed. The 10,553 GT ferry, which carries up to 984 passengers – 464 of them in beds – along with 277 cars, has been inactive since its arrival in the Sicily port back in July 2013. A planned operation between Porto Empedocle, Linosa and Lampedusa never materialised, although the ship was repainted in the livery of its intended charterer, Siremar.

John Arkoumanis, Chairman of European Seaways, told Shippax CFI the ADRIATICA I is going to be renamed GALAXY and towed to Piraeus in the beginning of October. Here, the ship is facing a refurbishment of her passenger spaces as well as a thorough technical overhaul required to reactive her after the three-year layup. In the beginning of 2017 she will resume European Seaways' Italy-Albania service, extending the company's fleet to three ships. The flagship PRINCE, acquired only this spring from Scandlines, is operating on the Igoumenitsa-Brindisi line, while the 1976-built BRIDGE has been time-chartered to Adria Ferries for their own Albania-Italy operation.

Originally built as the SILESIA in Szczecin, Poland, for Polska Zeluga Baltyska, the ADRIATICA I has sailed on a variety of routes since her sale by Polferries in 2005. Operation between Istanbul and Odessa under the name of YUZHNAYA PALMYRA was interrupted by a brief charter to Spain, which saw her trading as the BEGOÑA DEL MAR between the mainland and the Balearic Islands. Following a further sale to South Adriatic Shipping Line at the end of 2010, the former SILESIA briefly traded between Bari and Durres as the ADRIATICA I.

European Seaways plans to resume operations on its Italy-Albania lines as well as between Brindisi and Greece in 2017. Following the end of this summer season, the PRINCE will likely be switched to the Albania-service before returning to the Igoumenitsa-line next year, following the inauguration of newly acquired GALAXY.