MS ''Superspeed 1'' is a fast

ro-pax Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, Trailer (vehicle), trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their ...

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

owned and operated by Color Line. She was built by

Aker Finnyards STX Finland Oy, formerly Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding compani ...

, Rauma,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

in 2008, and entered service on the

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

—

Hirtshals Hirtshals is a town and seaport on the coast of Skagerrak on the island of Vendsyssel-Thy at the top of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark, Europe. It is located in Hjørring municipality in Region Nordjylland. The town of Hirtshals has a ...

route on 13 March 2008.

Concept and construction

Since its establishment in 1991, Color Line had operated various conventional ferries between

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. From 1996 onwards fast ferries were used to enhance the service during the

northern hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

summer season. After an evaluation period of several years, the company began the planning process for two new large, fast, ferries in spring 2004, with the concept name Color Line Superspeed. The new ships were planned with a high enough service speed to eliminate the need for overnight crossings entirely and as a result they only include cabins for truck drivers and the ships crew. On 15 December 2005 the construction of the ships was awarded to

' Rauma shipyard. Aker Finnyards had previously built what was at the time the world's 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 ot ...

for Color, and was at the time in the process of building , a slightly enlargened version of the ''Color Fantasy''. The delivery times for the Color Line Superspeed vessels were originally planned for December 2007 for the first ship and April 2008 for the second. Due to delays in construction, including technical problems with one of the auxiliary engines, the first ship, MS ''Superspeed 1'', was not delivered to Color Line until 27 February 2008.

Design

Both the exterior and interior design of ''Superspeed 1'' was handled by the

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

-based Falkum-Hansen Design.

Exterior design

The hull shape of the ''Superspeed 1'' has been designed for optimized speed performance and good sea-keeping characteristics. The ship has a fairly high, short bow, a rounded superstructure raising straight up to the bridge. The rear of the ship is relatively long, with a large entry space between the rear of the superstructure and the actual rear of the ship. The hull has been painted in the traditional dark blue of Color Line, with a red decorative stripe on top of the blue area. The blue hull paint raises upwards in an arch from the front of the ship, following the shape of the bow, and then arches all the way down to the waterline at the rear. A wide black stripe has been painted along the windows on deck 8, and the window frames of the bridge and the rears windows on deck 7 and 8 are also painted black. The funnel, located very close to amidship, is of a similar design to the funnels of and .

Interior design

Most passenger spaces on the ''Superspeed 1'' are located on decks 7 and 8, above the multi-deck car deck complex and storage rooms. A two-deck high atrium is located by the entrance amidship.

Engines

The main engines consist of four medium-speed diesel engines (Wärtsilä type 9L46), each with 9,600 kW power at 500 r.p.m., acting on two Rolls-Royce-KaMeWa propellers. The auxiliary engines for generating electric power are four Wärtsilä diesel engines of type 6L32 each with 3,000 kW. Two bow-thrusters each with 2,400 kW and a stern thruster with 1,200 kW are installed for safe manoevring e.g. in the port of Hirtshals.

References

External links

Page about the M/S SuperSpeed 1

Technical Facts

Shipspotting: M/S SuperSpeed 1 photos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Superspeed 1 Ferries of Norway Ships built in Rauma, Finland 2007 ships Color Line (ferry operator) Merchant ships of Norway