Built in 1972, the originally-named Bonanza saw service on a wide spread of Olsen services, including the mainline Kristiansand-Hirsthals route, as well as service on the fruit run from the Canaries. Various charters were also undertaken, including to Britanny Ferries and Silja.
In 1980 transferred to Fred Olsen subsiduary Ferry Gomera and renamed Benchijigua, she became the mainstay of the lifeline La Gomera-Tenerife service in the Canary Islands.
With the company's re-organisation and fleet renewal of the mid-1990s, the ship was renamed Bajamar late in 1994, and moved to the Tenerife-Gran Canaria route. Disposed of in 2002, being sold to the Philippines as Blessed Mother.
Blessed Mother (ex-Bajamar, Benchijigua, ex-Bonanza)
(ex-Fred. Olsen/Ferry Gomera)
ABOVE: At San Sebastian, Gomera in Spring 1993, Benchijigua looks immaculately maintained, wearing the later all-white Ferry Gomera livery - the upper forward deckhousing retained the yellow colour seen in the top picture.
ABOVE: A Ferry Gomera brochure view of the ship's interior, from 1993.
Memories of a return crossing on the ship in the winter of 1993 between Tenerife and La Gomera are of a series of smoky, cramped and dark lounges on a largely open-plan layout. Certainly the ample sundecks were a more appealing proposition to tourists, although this didn't appear to be the case for the majority of local passengers.
e-mail: matt@hhvferry.com
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ABOVE: A final view of the stern of the ship in her last Fred. Olsen guise as Bajamar. The ship retained her port of registry at San Sebastian on Gomera (the small island off Tenerife where Fred. Olsen as a group have a significant presence) despite not having served the island since 1994. (Photo courtesy David Baker)
ABOVE: A pair of official pictures of the ship wearing the older grey-hulled Ferry Gomera livery with yellow funnels and forward upper superstructure. Operating as a ro-ro ship with a bow visor, the right hand view shows Benchijigua unloading in Tenerife.
ABOVE: Benchijigua in the later Lineas Fred. Olsen livery.