see tt line . tt line company type government enterprise industry transport founded 1 november 1993 headquarters devonport tasmania australia key people rene hidding minister for infrastructure bernard dwyer ceo michael grainger chairman products ferries passenger transportation freight transportation holidays business travel revenue a 206 million june 2015 net income a 1.2 million june 2015 number of employees 463 june 2015 parent government of tasmania slogan a trip to remember website www.spiritoftasmania.com.au tt line company 1 is a company operating ferries from tasmania to mainland australia since 1985 . the company was separated from the tasmanian government s department of transport in 1993 becoming a government business enterprise wholly owned by the government of tasmania . contents 1 history 1.1 1985 1992 1.2 1993 2001 1.3 2002 1.4 2003 present 2 fleet 2.1 current fleet 2.2 former ships 3 references 4 external links history edit 1985 1992 edit tt line tasmania was formed in 1985 following the announcement that the australian national line anl would no longer operate a service across bass strait with the empress of australia . after the cessation of anl operations to tasmania the tasmanian government s department of transport began a replacement ferry service purchasing the west german ferry nils holgersson 3 for 26 million . that amount was offset by a payment from the australian federal government in compensation for placing the environmentally sensitive gordon river off limits to hydro tasmania power generation schemes . the nils holgersson 3 was renamed abel tasman on 21 april 1985 and set sail for australia she arrived in devonport on 20 june and began operating on 1 july 1985 from melbourne s station pier . 1993 2001 edit in 1993 tt line tasmania replaced the aging abel tasman with another ex tt line ferry . the new ship peter pan 3 had replaced the former nils holgersson 3 now abel tasman on the travem nde to trelleborg route in germany in 1986 . the ship which was delivered to lloyd werft shipyard in september 1993 and was renamed spirit of tasmania cost the government 150 million . the ferry left germany on 5 october and arrived in devonport 12 november . on 1 november 1993 operation of the service was transferred from the tasmanian department of transport to tt line pty ltd a government business enterprise wholly owned by the tasmanian government . 2 the spirit of tasmania made her first commercial crossing of bass strait on the night of 29 november 1993 and on that morning the abel tasman was laid up and offered for sale which was completed in april 1994 to ventouris ferries as the pollux . while the spirit of tasmania was dry docked in 1997 the tt line chartered a large multi hull ferry the incat 045 now condor rapide from incat dubbing her tascat . she was used for two weeks as an experiment . in the peak season of 1997 98 . tt line chartered incat 046 to operate as devil cat from the old seacat tasmania terminal in george town to station pier . tt line repeated this over the 1998 99 peak season with the new incat 050 devil cat also marketed under the name devil cat . in september 1999 the spirit of tasmania was forced out of action for two weeks due to fuel contamination and tt line chartered the incat 030 hsc condor 10 which at the time was laid up in new zealand as the lynx . once tt line arranged for the charter she immediately departed new zealand and arrived in tasmania two days later and entered service to cover for the spirit of tasmania . over the 1999 00 summer season tt line again charted a fast craft while the former devil cat incat 046 was used on the georgetown melbourne route during this peak period for three successive years . 2002 edit spirit of tasmania i enters her port of registry devonport in 2002 the tasmanian government and tt line announced that they would be replacing the devil cat and the spirit of tasmania with two finnish built monohull ferries superfast iii and superfast iv later that year from superfast ferries . both were handed over at the neorion shipyard on the island of syros where they had been refitted . superfast iii was renamed spirit of tasmania ii and departed on 6 july and superfast iv renamed spirit of tasmania i and departed 7 july . they set off for australia both arriving in hobart 29 july where the final touches were put into place . after public inspections at hobart melbourne and devonport the two new ships set sail on 1 september spirit i from devonport and spirit ii from melbourne . earlier that day spirit of tasmania arrived in melbourne for the last time having crossed bass strait 2 849 times and carried a total of 2.3 million passengers 807 000 cars and 185 000 containers . spirit of tasmania departed melbourne just before midnight on 5 september headed for sydney where she arrived on 7 september . in late december it was announced that the ship had been sold to fjord line . 2003 present edit spirit of tasmania iii on the mersey river devonport in march 2003 it was announced that tt line would begin operating a third ship the spirit of tasmania iii from devonport to sydney in early 2004 . the last service from sydney to tasmania operated by the australian trader had ceased in 1976 . the new ship was also ex superfast ferries having been built as the superfast ii in 1995 . superfast ii was handed over to tt line 30 september and went to the nerion yard for refitting after the works and renaming to spirit of tasmania iii she set off on the evening of 10 october . she arrived in hobart on 30 october berthing no. 6 macquarie wharf for more fitting out to be done . spirit of tasmania iii set out for a voyage from hobart to devonport with 500 people aboard . she stayed in devonport for a day and then moved on to melbourne then to sydney . spirit of tasmania iii debuted on the sydney to devonport run on 13 january 2004 . on 5 june 2006 the tasmanian government announced that the sydney to devonport service would cease on 28 august and the ship sold . 3 it was announced 11 july 2006 that spirit of tasmania iii had been sold to corsica ferries ; she has now been renamed mega express four . fleet edit spirit of tasmania ii on port melbourne spirit of tasmania iii entering sydney harbour current fleet edit ship flag built gross tonnage length width passengers cars knots spirit of tasmania i 1998 29 067 gt 194.3 m 25 m 1 400 630 28.5 spirit of tasmania ii 1998 29 067 gt 194.3 m 25 m 1 400 630 28.5 former ships edit ship years in service gross tonnage current status abel tasman 1985 1994 19 212 gt since 1995 theofilos of nel lines greece spirit of tasmania 1993 2002 31 356 gt since 2011 princess seaways of dfds seaways denmark incat 046 devil cat 1997 2002 5 617 gt since 2006 t & t express of government of trinidad and tobago incat 045 tascat 1997 5 007 gt since 2010 condor rapide of condor ferries guernsey incat 050 devil cat 1998 1999 5 743 gt since 2009 manannan of isle of man steam packet company incat 030 condor 10 1999 3 241 gt since 2011 hanil blue narae of hanil express korea spirit of tasmania iii 2003 2006 23 663 gt since 2006 mega express four of corsica ferries italy references edit tt line company pty ltd australian securities & investments commission tt line company pty ltd tasmanian government officials cast doubt on melbourne devonport ferry abc news 6 june 2006 books ferry to tasmania a short history by peter plowman isbn 1 877058 27 0 . super ferries of britain europe and scandinavia by russell plummer isbn 978 0 85059 923 7 . internet fakta om fartyg facts on ships swedish the ferry site tt line annual report 09 10 tt line company pty ltd appoints new ceo external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to spirit of tasmania . spirit of tasmania information and photos of tt line tasmania ferries photos of tt line ships tt line on fakta om fartyg swedish v t e ferries of australia individual ferries abel tasman australian trader balgowlah baragoola barrenjoey bellubera brighton burra bra collaroy devil cat empress of australia freshwater herald island seaway kanangra kara kara karatta karrabee kooleen koompartoo kooroongaba kuramia kuttabul lady cutler lady denman manly iii narabeen peninsula princess phillip penda princess of tasmania queenscliff 1983 queenscliff 1992 sealion 2000 shelley taylor smith sorrento south steyne spirit of kangaroo island spirit of tasmania spirit of tasmania i spirit of tasmania ii spirit of tasmania iii sydney 2000 troubridge ferry classes sydney dee why sydney first fleet sydney hydrofoil sydney jetcat sydney lady sydney rivercat sydney supercat ferry operators bass & flinders cruises harbour city ferries newcastle buses & ferries sealink travel group including captain cook cruises captain cook cruises wa . kangaroo island sealink & matilda cruises searoad ferries transdev brisbane ferries transperth tt line former ferry operators australian national line brisbane city council port jackson & manly steamship company public transport commission state transit authority sydney ferries sydney ferries limited sydney harbour transport board transit systems urban transit authority retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title tt line company & oldid 721016322 categories bass strait ferriescompanies established in 1993ferry companies of tasmaniagovernment owned companies of tasmaniahidden categories use dmy dates from june 2015use australian english from june 2015all wikipedia articles written in australian englishcommons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage 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