Silja Line

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Silja Line ships in Helsinki in 2004
Silja Line ships in Helsinki in 2004

Silja Line (Tallink Silja Oy) is a Finnish shipping company owned as of 2006 by the Estonian ferry operator Tallink. Silja Line was previously owned by the shipping company Sea Containers LLC. Silja operates multiple ferry lines on the Baltic Sea. It is among the biggest operators on its core market, transporting about five million passengers and over 300,000 cars every year.

Contents

[edit] History

The history of Silja Line can be traced back to 1904 when two Finnish shipping companies, Finland Steamship Company (Finska Ångfartygs Aktiebolaget, FÅA for short) and Steamship Company Bore, started collaborating on Finland - Sweden traffic. After World War I in 1918 a new agreement was made that also included the Swedish Rederi AB Svea. Originally the collaboration agreement applied only on service between Turku and Stockholm, but the companies started working together on Helsinki - Stockholm services as well, and a precursor to the policies later adopted by Silja Line each of the three companies ordered near-identical ships for Helsinki - Stockholm service to coincide with the 1952 Summer Olympics, held in Helsinki. Eventually only Finland SS Co.'s Aallotar was ready in time for the olympics. At this time the city of Helsinki constructed the Olympia Terminal in Helsinki's South Port, that Silja Line's ships still use.

[edit] 1957-1970

Realising that car-passenger ferries would be the dominating traffic form in the future, the three collaborating companies decided to form a daughter company, Oy Siljavarustamo / Siljarederiet Ab. The new company started out with used ships which weren't particularly well-fitted for the role they were meant for, but that was about to change when in 1961 Silja took delivery of the new M/S Skandia, the first purpose-built car-passenger ferry in the northern Baltic Sea. Skandia's sister M/S Nordia followed the next year and the era's giant M/S Fennia in 1966.

Depite the establishment of Silja, FÅA, Bore and Svea also continued to operate on the same routes with their own ships. This led to a somewhat complex situation where four different companies were marketed as one entiry. In Finland they went by the name Ruotsinlaivat ("Sweden's Ships" or "Ships to Sweden") whereas in Sweden the preferred term was Det Samseglande (roughly "the ones that sail together"). In both countries the names of all four companies were usually displayed alongside the group identity.

[edit] 1970-1980

In 1967 three of Silja's rival companies had formed a joint marketing and coordination company, Viking Line, which was to become Silja Line's main rival for the next two decades. FÅA, Bore and Svea soon realised that a similar arrangement would be preferrable to their current fragmented image, and in 1970 a big change was carried out within the organisations: Silja Line was established as a joint marketing and coordination company between FÅA, Bore and Svea, and the ships of Siljavarustamo were divided between these three. All Silja Line's ships were painted in the same colour scheme, with a white hull and superstrcuture, with the dark blue "Silja Line" text on the side, alongside the now-famous seal's head logo. Each company retained their own funnel colours, so it was easy to distinguish which ship belonged to which company even from a distance: Svea's funnels where white with a large black S on them, FÅA's were black with two white brands around the funnel, and Bore's were yellow with a blue/white cross.

Already before the reorganisation Silja had ordered two new ships from Dubegion-Normandie S.A., Nantes, France to begin year-round traffic from Helsinki to Stockholm (up until that point the route was summers only). In 1972 these were delivered to FÅA and Svea as M/S Aallotar and M/S Svea Regina, respectively. Passenger numbers on the Helsinki route grew fast and already in 1973 it was decided that the three companies would each order a ship of identical design from the same shipyard to replace the current Helsinki - Stockholm ships. The first two of these was delivered in 1975 (M/S Wellamo and M/S Svea Corona). The last sister, M/S Bore Star, was delivered in December of the same year. However, there weren't enough passengers during the winter for all three ships, and as a result the Bore Star was chartered to Finnlines during the winters of 1975-1976 and 1976-1977. In 1976 Finland SS Co changed its name to Effoa (the Finnish phonetic spelling of FÅA). During the latter part of the 1970s Effoa's old ferries M/S Ilmatar and M/S Regina made cruises around Baltic Sea, Norwegian fjords and the Atlantic (from Málaga) under the marketing name Silja Cruises.

[edit] 1980-1986

In the 1979 Svea and Effoa decided again to order new ships for the Helsinki - Stockholm route, which would be the largest ferries of their time. Bore however decided not to participate in building new ships, and in 1980 opted to bow out of passenger traffic altogether (Bore Line still exists as a freight-carrying company today). Their two ships were sold to Effoa and their shares of Silja Line split between the two other companies. In Finland, and later in Sweden, a large maritime strike in spring 1980 stopped ferry traffic completely. This also prompted Effoa to terminate the Silja Cruises service.

Despite the difficulties Silja's first real cruiseferries M/S Finlandia and M/S Silvia Regina entered traffic in 1981, which led to a 45% raise in passenger numbers. Late in the same year Johnson Line purchased Rederi AB Svea, and the former Svea ships received Johnson Line's blue/yellow colours. The good experiences gained from the new Helsinki ships prompted Effoa and Johnson Line to order two ships built on a similar principle for traffic on the Turku - Stockholm route, which were delivered in 1985 and 1986 as M/S Svea and M/S Wellamo. Although similar in proportions and interior layout, the new ships sported an attractive streamlined superstructure instead of the box-like superstructure of Finlandia and Silvia Regina.

[edit] 1987-1992

1987 was a very eventful year for Silja. Effoa had purchased the famous GTS M/S Finnjet the previous year and from the beginning of 1987 the prestigious but unprofitable "Queen of the Baltic Sea" joined Silja Line's fleet. Later in the same year Effoa and Johnson Line jointly purchased Rederi Ab Sally, one of the owners of their rival Viking Line. The other Viking Line partners forced the new owners to seel their share in Viking, but Effoa and Johnson Line still got Vaasanlaivat / Vasabåtarna, Sally Cruises, Sally Ferries UK and Commodore Cruise Line. Although the purchase of Sally had no effect in Silja Line's traffic for the time being, it proved to be important later. Finally 1987 saw the order of new ships for Helsinki - Stockholm route (again), which would be the largest ferries ever built (again), eventually named M/S Silja Serenade and M/S Silja Symphony. Not revealed at the time, the new ships had a 140-meter promenade-street running along the center of the ship, a feature never seen before in a ship (these days promenades are commonly found on Royal Caribbean Cruises and Color Line's newer ships).

In late 1989 Wärtsilä Marine, the shipyard building Silja's new cruiseferries, went bankrupt, which led to the ships being delivered later than had been planned. To ensure the delivery of their ferries Effoa and Johnson Line both purchased a part of the new Masa-Yards establihed to continue shipbuilding in Wärtsilä's former shipyards.

The year 1990 saw the realisation of an old vision: Effoa and Johnson Line merged to form EffJohn. As a result the seal's head logo gravitated into the funnel, replacing the old colours of each individual owner company. In November of the same year the new M/S Silja Serenade made it's maiden voayge from Helsinki to Stockholm, approximately seven months after the original planned delivery date. M/S Silja Symphony was delivered the following year. Despiste being highly popular and sporting a successful design, the new ships had also been very expensive. Coupled with the depression in the early 90's EffJohn was forced to cut costs, which resulted in Wasa Line and Sally Cruises being merged into Silja Line in 1992. The year also saw Svea and Wellamo being modernised in Silja Karneval and Silja Festival, respectively.

[edit] 1993-2004

The year 1993 began with a bang. In January it was reported that Silja Line had chartered M/S Europa, a ship under construction for Rederi AB Slite, one of the owners of Viking Line. Due to financial troubles Slite could not pay for their new ship, and the shipyard decided to charter it to Silja instead. Later in the same year Silja joined forced with Euroway on their Malmö - Travemünde - Lübeck route. The route proved to be unprofitable and was terminated in spring 1994.

M/S Silja Europa, the largest cruiseferry in the world 1993-2001.
M/S Silja Europa, the largest cruiseferry in the world 1993-2001.

M/S Sally Albatross was grounded outside Helsinki in spring 1994 and suffered major damage, which prompted Silja to give up traffic on her. September 1994 saw the largest peace-time maritime disaster on the Baltic Sea, the sinking of M/S Estonia. Silja Europa, Silja Symphony and Finnjet all assisted in searching for survivors from the disaster. Sinking of the Estonia led to passenger numbers dropping, which did not help Silja's precarious situation. The company was now the largest on the Baltic Sea, having finally overtaken Viking Line in 1993, but financially it wasn't doing too well. In 1995 Effjohn changed their name into Silja Oy Ab. Three years later the name was changed again, this time to Neptun Maritime.

1999 saw two big changes coming for Silja. Tax Free sales ended on routes between EU countries, which forced the Helsinki - Stockholm ships to start calling at Mariehamn in the Åland Islands, as although the Åland Islands are a part of Finland, as an autonomous area they opted to stay outside the EU when Finland joined it in 1994. Bigger change than this was Sea Containers purchasing the majority of Neptun Maritime's shares. In 2000 the new owners brought one of their Super SeaCats on Helsinki - Tallinn traffic and Neptun Maritime again changed its name, this time to Silja Oyj Abp. In the same year the route between Vaasa and Umeå was terminated as unprofitable.

[edit] 2004-

By 2004 Sea Containers owned Silja Line entirely. The company was doing well financially and all seemed to be going well. Unfortunately Sea Containers' other operations were not as profitable and in late 2005 they announced their intent to give up their ferry division completely, this naturally including selling Silja Line. In preparation for the sale the unprofitable GTS M/S Finnjet and M/S Silja Opera were taken out of service and transferred under Sea Co's ownership. Silja Serenade and Symphony were also rebuilt in early 2006 to make them more attractive to the potential buyer.

May 2006 saw the sale of Silja Line to the Estonian Tallink. The Super SeaCats trafficking between Helsinki and Tallinn were not included in the sale as their purchase would have given Tallink a monopoly on the route. Instead Sea Containers (that had barely a year ago announced their intention to give up the ferry business completely) continued operating them under the SuperSeaCat brand. In late 2006 the land organisations of Tallink and Silja Line were reorganised in Finland so that Tallink Finland and Superfast Finland were merged into Oyj Silja Abp, which now took care of all Finnish operations of Tallink/Silja. Shortly afterwards Oyj Silja Abp was renamed into Tallink Silja Oy. Similarly the land organisations in Sweden became Tallink Silja AB.

[edit] Future

Tallink has announced its intention to keep the brand Silja Line for the current Silja operations. It might be expected though that ships belonging to Tallink/Silja in the future will switch routes with each other when needed. According to the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat article on 31 January 2007 [1], Tallinks newbuilding M/S 1361 currently under construction at Aker Yards in Finland, will replace either M/S Silja Festival or M/S Silja Europa on the Stockholm - Mariehamn - Turku route when delivered in 2008. However, in an interview of the same newspaper on 7 March [2], Tallink Silja CEO Keijo Mehtonen stated that no decisions had been made regarding the final route of NB 1361. However, in the same interview Mehtonen said Tallink Silja are making studies of the Turku - Stockholm line in order to make decision on whether the main emphasis on the route in the future will be freight or passengers.

[edit] Fleet

[edit] Current fleet

[edit] Former ships

Approximately 20 ships have served for Silja Line during the company's history, obviously this is not a complete list.

[edit] Fan pages

Silja line has two fanzine pages. SILJAweb is available in English and Estonian and is maintained by Ilja Berunenko. Valkeat Laivat, maintained by Sami Koski, has a large collection of photographs but is only available in Finnish. Sami Koski also publishes a biannual print fanzine (available in PDF-format) called Promenade News.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Members of Tallink Grupp AS
Tallink • Silja Line • SeaWind Line
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