{"id":13816,"date":"2026-02-15T10:52:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/13816\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T10:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:52:29","slug":"ave-caesarea-dfds-finally-confirms-condor-ship-purchase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/13816\/","title":{"rendered":"Ave Caesarea! DFDS finally confirms Condor ship purchase"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s possibly the worst-kept secret on the sea\u2026 after months of speculation, and online ferry fan frenzy, DFDS has finally confirmed that it has snapped up one of Condor\u2019s old ships \u2013 and given it a new name.<\/p>\n

The Commodore Goodwill freight vessel, which has been a familiar sight in Channel Island waters for almost three decades, is now officially part of the Danish ferry giant\u2019s fleet and will return to Jersey service under a new name, the Caesarea Trader.<\/p>\n

Mounting speculation and a \u20ac14m price tag<\/p>\n

Once vital to Jersey\u2019s supply lines, the 126m Commodore Goodwill\u00a0went on the market with a \u20ac14m price tag in February<\/a>, listed on a\u00a0German website<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0shipselector.com<\/a>, after the island decided to part ways with its key ferry operator of two decades.<\/p>\n

By the end of April, several online forums \u2013 including the 12,700-member-strong Channel Islands\u2019 Ferry Users Group and the DFDS Ferry Forum, which has 26,000 users \u2013 highlighted \u201cunconfirmed reports\u201d that a sale had been agreed.<\/p>\n

But Condor parent company Brittany Ferries and DFDS declined to comment when approached by Express at the time. <\/p>\n

\"\"Pictured: Rumours had been circulating social media.<\/p>\n

Now, more than two months later, DFDS has today confirmed that, following preparatory work in dry dock, the vessel will replace the MV Arrow on routes connecting Jersey with Portsmouth and Saint Malo.<\/p>\n

It did not confirm the final sale price, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditional capacity and better schedules\u201d promised<\/p>\n

Jersey route director Chris Parker said DFDS was \u201cdedicated to supporting Jersey\u2019s connectivity and economic resilience through dependable freight services and continuous investment in its fleet\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted to be able to announce the acquisition of Goodwill which will provide additional capacity and better schedules for our freight customers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working hard to get Goodwill ready for service and in the meantime MV Arrow and her crew will continue to provide an excellent service for the Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Pictured: The Commodore Goodwill is a freight ship, and previously carried \u2018Junior Joey\u2019 for Aurigny.<\/p>\n

Mr Parker said the acquisition did not change the company\u2019s plans for new vessels to serve the Island, including which will include a new RoRo vessel.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in a name? <\/p>\n

Launched in 1996, the 126m Goodwill freight vessel, which also has 12 passengers cabins, had been serving the Channel Islands ever since until Condor\u2019s contract ended in March. Currently registered in the Bahamas, it\u2019s due to be \u2018reflagged\u2019 as a UK-registered vessel.<\/p>\n

Its new name, Caesarea Trader, pays homage to what\u2019s believed to be Jersey\u2019s Latin name, Caesarea.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s said that the Romans decided to name the island after their Emperor, and that the name was eventually corrupted to Jersey.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s also evidence to suggest the name given was Andium \u2013\u00a0which is used today by Jersey\u2019s main social housing provider, Andium Homes.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s possibly the worst-kept secret on the sea\u2026 after months of speculation, and online ferry fan frenzy, DFDS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6052],"tags":[10583,5814,6057,10584],"class_list":{"0":"post-13816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dfds","8":"tag-commodore-goodwill","9":"tag-condor","10":"tag-dfds","11":"tag-freight-services"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}