Finland Steamship Company ( sv, Finska Ångfartygs Aktiebolag, abbreviated ''FÅA'', fi, Suomen Höyrylaiva Osakeyhtiö, abbreviated ''SHO'') was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

shipping company founded in 1883 by Captain Lars Krogius. In Finnish and Swedish, the company was usually referred to simply as FÅA. In 1976, the company changed its name to Effoa, a phonetic spelling of the abbreviation FÅA. The company was a founding member of the

Silja Line Silja Line is a Swedish-Finnish cruiseferry brand operated by the Estonian ferry company AS Tallink Grupp, for car, cargo and passenger traffic between Finland and Sweden. The former company Silja Oy—today Tallink Silja Oy—is a subsidiary ...

consortium. In 1975 FÅA founded

Finncarriers Finnlines Plc ( fi, Finnlines osakeyhtiö, Oyj, sv, Finnlines Abp) is a shipping operator of Roll-on/roll-off, ro-ro and passenger services in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. It is a subsidiary of the Grimaldi Group. Finnlines’ sea transpor ...

together with

Finnlines Finnlines Plc ( fi, Finnlines Oyj, sv, Finnlines Abp) is a shipping operator of ro-ro and passenger services in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. It is a subsidiary of the Grimaldi Group. Finnlines’ sea transports are concentrated in the Bal ...

as a joint freight operations venture. At the same time FÅA gave up passenger traffic between Finland and Germany, the ships used on the route were sold to Finnlines. In the 1980s both Finncarriers and Finnlines became fully owned subsidiaries of Effoa. In 1989 Effoa decided to give up its freight-carrying operations, and its shares of Finnlines were transferred to Effoa's owners. Effoa stopped trading as an independent company in 1990 when its freight operations were demerged to form an independent

, while the passenger operations were merged with Johnson Line (the other partner in Silja Line at the time) to form EffJohn. In 1945, FÅA was the first company post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to restart passenger traffic between

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

and

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, using . The same ship was also the first to start passenger traffic between Helsinki and

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

after World War II in 1965.

Ships

* ''

Arcturus , - bgcolor="#FFFAFA" , Note (category: variability): , , H and K emission vary. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Boötes. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the third-brightest of th ...

'' (1899–57) — Passenger ship that operated primarily on the

Hanko Hanko may refer to People *August Hanko (military personnel), August Hanko, German First World War flying ace Places *Hanko, Finland, town and municipality *Hanko Peninsula, Finland *Hankø, an island in the Oslo Fjord in Norway *The asteroid ...

–

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

– Hull route. * (1925–30) — Sunk when ''Arcturus'' collided with it in fog. * (1927–67) — Restarted

–

and

–

traffic after World War II. Scrapped in 1969. * (1964–80) — Later the casino cruise ship ''Palm Beach Princess''. Scrapped in 2011. * (1967–76) — Effoa's first modern car/passenger ferry. Scrapped in 2009. * (1972–78) — First ship to start year-round traffic between Helsinki and Stockholm. Scrapped in 2004. * ''

Finlandia ''Finlandia'', Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian ...

'' (1981–90) — Largest

cruiseferry A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while oth ...

of her time. Later ''Queen of Scandinavia'' of

DFDS Seaways DFDS Seaways is a Danish shipping company that operates passenger and freight services across northern Europe. Following the acquisition of Norfolkline in 2010, DFDS restructured its other shipping divisions (DFDS Tor Line and DFDS Lisco) in ...

. * (1986–90) — Bought from

Enso-Gutzeit Stora Enso Oyj (from sv, Stora and fi, Enso ) is a manufacturer of pulp, paper and other forest products, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The majority of sales takes place in Europe, but there are also significant operations in Asia and S ...

. The longest and fastest cruise ferry of her time, and still fastest as of 2008.

References

{{reflist

External links

Finland Steamship Company at TheShipList

Silja Line company website
Defunct companies of Finland Defunct shipping companies Transport companies established in 1883 Shipping companies of Finland Defunct transport companies of Finland 1880s establishments in Finland