SF Line was the name of the Finnish shipping company now known as

Viking Line Viking Line Abp is a Finland, Finnish shipping company that operates a fleet of ferry, ferries and cruiseferry, cruiseferries between Finland, the Åland, Åland Islands, Sweden and Estonia. Viking Line shares are quoted on the Helsinki Stock Ex ...

. The company, originally named Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan, was one of three shipping companies that formed shipping marketing company Viking Line in 1966, the other two being Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen and

Rederi AB Slite Rederi AB Slite was a Sweden, Swedish List of ship companies, shipping company, founded in 1947. The company was one of the three founding companies of Viking Line. Rederi AB Slite went bankruptcy, bankrupt in 1993. History Early history Rederi ...

. After the other companies left Viking Line in 1988 and 1993 respectively, SF Line stood as the sole owner of Viking Line. As a result, SF Line changed its name to Viking Line in 1995.

History

Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen (later Rederi Ab Solstad and merged into

Rederi Ab Sally Rederi Ab Sally was a Finnish shipping company founded in 1937 by Algot Johansson. The company began as a tanker operator and later became a prominent member of the Viking Line consortium. In 1987, Effoa and Johnson Line, owners of rival Si ...

in 1970) was founded in 1959 and started ferry operations between Gräddö (

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) and Korppoo (

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, ...

). The ship used was a ro-ro vessel ''Viking'', which the company acquired in 1959 from a previous owner. The ship was originally known as ''Dinard'' before being renamed to ''Viking''. After a disagreement between the founders, a group of men led by Gunnar Eklund left Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen and started a new company, Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan. The new company purchased the steamer Brittany, renamed her ''Ålandsfärjan'' and started operations between

Kapellskär Kapellskär () is a port about north of Stockholm, in Sweden. It is located by the Baltic Sea, in Norrtälje Municipality, Stockholm County. Services The port was served by frequent passenger ferry services to Mariehamn, Åland, Finland, operate ...

(Sweden) and

Mariehamn Mariehamn ( , ; ; ) is the capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government and Parliament of Åland, and 40% of the population of Åland live in the city. It is mostly surrounded b ...

(

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

) in direct competition with Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen. In 1966, Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan, Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen and Rederi AB Slite joined forces and founded the marketing company Viking Line in order to compete with

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

. During the following years, the three companies ordered many newbuildings and Viking Line became a dominant operator in baltic ferry operations. In 1970, Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan changed its name to SF Line, 'S' referring to Sverige (Sweden) and 'F' to Finland. Their first newbuilding was the MS ''Kapella'', delivered in 1967. As a tribute to Gunnar Eklund's wife Ellen, the names of all subsequent new ships of SF Line ends with '-ella'. When Rederi Ab Sally in 1987 was acquired by Silja Line's owning company EffJohn, SF Line and Rederi AB Slite forced Sally to leave Viking Line. After the bankruptcy of Rederi AB Slite in 1993, SF Line was the only remaining company in Viking Line. SF Line then changed its name to Viking Line.

Ships

*1963 SS ''Ålandsfärjan'' (sold for scrap in 1972) *1967 MS ''Kapella'' (sold in 1979, scrapped in 2006) *1970 MS ''Marella'' (sold in 1980, scrapped in 2004) *1973 MS ''Aurella'' (sold in 1982, scrapped in 2024) *1979 MS ''Turella'' (sold in 1988, currently MS ''Kongshavn'' for Kystlink) *1980 MS ''Rosella'' *1985 MS ''Mariella'' *1987 MS ''Ålandsfärjan'' (sold in 2008 to G.A.P Adventures, renamed ''Expedition'') *1988 MS ''Amorella'' *1989 MS ''Isabella'' (currently MS ''Isabelle'' for

Tallink Tallink () is an Estonian shipping company operating Baltic Sea cruiseferries and ropax ships from Estonia to Finland, Estonia to Sweden and Finland to Sweden. It is the largest passenger and cargo shipping company in the Baltic Sea region. It ...

) *1989 MS ''Cinderella'' (renamed MS ''Viking Cinderella'' in 2003) *1997 MS ''Gabriella'' *2008 MS ''Viking XPRS'' *2012 MS ''Viking Grace'' *2021 '' MS Viking Glory''

References

External links

Viking Line Finnish homepageViking Line Ålandian homepageViking Line Swedish homepage
*{{cite web, url=http://www.faktaomfartyg.se/viking_line.htm, title=Viking Line at Fakta om fartyg, archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120524230830/http://www.faktaomfartyg.nu/viking_line.htm, archivedate=2012-05-24, url-status=dead (in Swedish) Shipping companies of Finland

History

Ships

See also

References

External links