M/S Meloodia

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M/S Meloodia in Helsinki

M/S Meloodia is a passenger ferry owned by the Estonian ferry company Tallink, currently under charter to Balearia, Spain for service between Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. She was built in 1979 by Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany as M/S Diana II for Rederi AB Slite for use in Viking Line's traffic.

1 History
2 Specifications
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Diana II (originally Diana II av Slite) was built at Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany. The same shipyards had previously built several ships for various Viking Line partner companies, and was at the time same building M/S Viking Sally for Rederi ab Sally. M/S Viking Sally would later became infamous as the M/S Estonia. Contrary to the popular belief the Diana II and Viking Sally were not sister ships, although they did share some technical innovations, including the bow visor construction. In essence the Diana II was an enlarged version of six near-identical ships (often referred to as the Papenburg Sisters) Meyer Werft had built for Slite and Sally for Viking Line services in the early 70's (whereas the Viking Sally was a new design).

Initially the Diana II was placed on Viking Line's Turku - Mariehamn - Stockholm service, but in June 1980 when the Viking Sally was delivered, she was moved to the Naantali - Mariehamn - Kapellskär route, where she served for the remainder of her Viking Line career. On 5 February 1989 Diana II touched ground near Kappelskär and started taking in water. Due to her pumping system operating only on half capacity the ship took in a lot of water and partially sunk on the shallow harbour of Kapellskär. She was soon refloated and docked for repairs. In 1989 the ship was also sold to PK Finans in Sweden, who chartered her back to Slite.

In 1992 Slite decided to terminate their part of the Naantali - Kapellskär service (SF Line continued operating the route until 1999), and the Diana II was chartered to TT-Line for their TR-Line service between Trelleborg and Rostock. During a trip in particularly bad weather on 13 January 1993, Diana II's bow visor war very nearly torn off by the waves. In September 1994 the ship was sold to Nordström & Thulin, Sweden, and renamed M/S Vironia. She was to be used alongside her old fleetmate M/S Estonia on Estline's Tallinn - Stockholm service. However, the Estonia sunk during the same month. As a result the Vironia was renamed Mare Balticum (to avoid association with the sunken ship due to the similar name) and docked in Naantali where her bow visor was welded shut. Her funnel, which had been somewhat problematic before, was also rebuilt. In November 1994 she could finally begin trafficking on the Tallinn - Stockholm route.

June 1996 Estline purchased a larger ship to replace the Mare Balticum on the Tallinn - Stockholm service, and the latter was chartered to Tallink (the new ship was incidentally Mare Balticum's former Viking Line fleetmate M/S Regina Baltica). After being rebuilt at Naantali with a bow gate, the newly renamed M/S Meloodia begun service on Tallink's Helsinki - Stockholm route in Semptember 1996. Tallink had organised a naming competition for their new ferry, but when the most popular suggested name was M/S Estonia II, the competition results were ignored.

In 2002 Tallink purchased the Meloodia, but her route remained unaltered. In preparation for delivery of the new fast ferry M/S Star in April 2007, the Meloodia was chartered to the Spanish shipping company Balearia in January 2007, for traffic between the Balearic Islands and Spanish mainland. Initially she was set in traffic between Barcelona and Mahón, Ibiza, and from February onwards between Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.