MS Theofilos was a passenger/vehicle ferry that was built at Nobiskrug in Rendsburg for the TT-Line as the Nils Holgersson (3) for the Travemünde - Trelleborg route in 1975 along with her sister Peter Pan (2).

[2] In 1985 it was purchased and renamed Abel Tasman by TT-Line Company and after the Australian National Line (ANL) announced they would be pulling out of the Bass Strait run, so the federal government gave the Tasmanian Government the capital required to buy a suitable ferry, in compensation for placing the environmentally-sensitive Gordon River off-limits to Hydro Tasmania power generation schemes.

[2] The ship was named after Abel Tasman, the first known European to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania).

In 1995 she was again sold, this time to the Maritime Company of Lesvos and operated by Nel Lines, renamed Theofilos for the Piraeus–Chios–Mytilini route with calls sometimes in Thessaloniki and Limnos.

She suffered serious damage to her port side hull, a 15–20 metres slash causing flooding of a water tight compartment, she subsequently developed a 2.5 degree list.

The ship was repaired, with an estimated cost to Nel Lines underwriter, The West of England Shipowners of €5 million.