LEFT Photographed off Avonmouth’s north pier on 16 February 1989, on her arrival from India with a cargo of animal feedstuffs, is the SD14 type Agia Efimia. Built at Sunderland in 1969 as Rupert de Larrinaga, she had in 1975 been sold to the ‘London Greek’ owner Vergottis to trade as Vergray until 1978, then as Atheras until laid up at Ithaca in March 1982.
The ship was purchased by Agoudimos in 1986 and, as Agia Efimia, she was managed by Flandermar until 1988 and then by Globe Shipping Managers until her sale in 1991 to Calais Shipping Inc, also of Piraeus. Renamed Virginia, she unfortunately suffered an engine breakdown on 11 December 1991 in severe weather in the Black Sea during her first voyage from Piraeus to Kherson, stranding at Kilyos and breaking in two.