![]() Silja Symphony in Kustaanmiekka | |
History | |
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Name | Silja Symphony |
Owner | Tallink Group [1] |
Operator | Silja Line |
Port of registry | Stockholm, Sweden |
Route | Stockholm–Mariehamn–Helsinki |
Builder | Masa-Yards Turku New Shipyard, Finland |
Launched | 15 May 1990 |
In service | 1991 |
Identification | IMO number: 8803769 |
Status | in active service |
General characteristics | |
Type | Cruiseferry |
Tonnage | 58,377 GT |
Length | 203.03 m (666 ft 1 in) |
Beam | 31.93 m (104 ft 9 in) |
Draught | 7.12 m (23 ft 4 in) |
Decks | 13 |
Ramps | 3 |
Ice class | 1 A Super |
Propulsion | 4 × Wärtsilä-Vasa 9R46 diesel engines, 32,500 kW (43,583 hp) |
Speed | 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) |
Capacity |
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MS Silja Symphony is a cruiseferry owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink Group, [2] operated under their Silja Line brand on a route connecting Helsinki, Finland to Stockholm, Sweden via Mariehamn. She was built in 1991 at Masa-Yards Turku New Shipyard, Finland.
While the Silja Symphony was being built, the Wärtsilä Marine shipyard went bankrupt, and as a result she was delivered several months behind schedule on 30 May 1991. On 1 June she was put on the route Helsinki – Stockholm. The new ships, the first ones to have a centerline promenade inside the ship, were highly popular but also proved to be somewhat expensive to operate. Unlike her sister, MS Silja Serenade, the Symphony's funnel was constructed of aluminium, which made the ship less heavy. Silja Symphony was also the third ship to arrive at the scene of the MS Estonia disaster on 28 September 1994.
On 7 February 1996, the ship was grounded in the Stockholm archipelago. In December of the same year her engines were upgraded with so-called water-spray technology that greatly reduced nitrogen oxide emissions. In order to keep tax free sales on the Helsinki – Stockholm ships when the EU changed its tax free legislation, a stop at Mariehamn was added to the route in June 1999. On 6 August 2001, a swarm of fish got sucked into the ship's cooling water intakes, which resulted in the engines shutting down due to overheating. Due to the engine problem the ship arrived in Helsinki some 1½ hours late.
In January 2004 the ship made two special cruises to Tallinn, Estonia for the Finnish company SOK. Similar cruises were made again in January 2005. In January–February 2006, just prior to the sale of Silja Line to Tallink, the Symphony and her sister had their interiors extensively rebuilt at Turku Repair Yard, Naantali. During a storm on 9 January 2007 the Symphony accidentally rammed a boarding tube in the port of Mariehamn, resulting in approximately €600,000 worth of damage.
There are some small external differences by which the Symphony can be told apart from her sister: the outer decks on the Symphony are painted light blue (they are green on the Serenade), the eyes of the seal in Symphony's funnel are blue whereas they are white with a blue outline on the Serenade, and the light box with the ship's name on it is white on the Symphony, but blue on the Serenade.
Silja Symphony reportedly started using official electronic logbooks in June 2023.
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.
Viking Line Abp is a Finnish shipping company that operates a fleet of ferries and cruiseferries between Finland, the Åland Islands, Sweden and Estonia. Viking Line shares are quoted on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Viking Line is operated from Åland.
MS Estonia was a cruiseferry built in 1980 for the Finnish company Rederi Ab Sally by Meyer Werft, in Papenburg, West Germany. She was employed on ferry routes between Finland and Sweden by various companies until 1993, when she was sold to Nordström & Thulin for use on Estline's Tallinn–Stockholm route. The ship's sinking on 28 September 1994, in the Baltic Sea between Sweden, Finland and Estonia, was one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters of the 20th century, claiming 852 lives.
MS Silja Europa is a cruiseferry constructed at Meyer Werft Germany for the Swedish ferry operator Rederi AB Slite, a part of Viking Line. At 59,914 gross tonnage (GT), she is the largest ship commissioned for and to ever operate for Tallink Silja, and is the tenth-largest cruiseferry in the world.
MS Silja Serenade is a cruiseferry owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink Grupp, operating under their Silja Line brand on a route connecting Helsinki to Stockholm via Mariehamn. She was built in 1990 by Masa-Yards at Turku New Shipyard, Finland. From 26 June 2020, to 13 September 2020, the ship's route was Helsinki–Riga, which got replaced by the cruiseferry MS Baltic Queen.
Mega Andrea is a cruiseferry owned and operated by Corsica Ferries Sardinia Ferries. She was formerly owned and operated by the Estonia-based Tallink as the MS Silja Festival, and used on their route connecting Riga, Latvia to Stockholm, Sweden. She was built in 1986 by Wärtsilä Helsinki Shipyard, Finland, for Effoa as MS Wellamo for use on Silja Line traffic. She was rebuilt in 1992 at Lloyds Werft, Bremerhaven, Germany as Silja Festival. In 2008 the ship was transferred from the Silja Line fleet to that of Tallink, but she retained her Silja-prefixed name. After being replaced by MS Isabelle on the Stockholm-Riga route in May 2013 she was chartered as an accommodation ship to Kitimat, British Columbia. She was then sold in early 2015 to Corsica Ferries.
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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 owns Silja Line and a part of SeaRail. Tallink Hotels runs four hotels in Tallinn. It is also the co-owner of a taxi company Tallink Takso.
MS Viking Cinderella is a cruiseferry built in 1989 at Wärtsilä Marine Perno Shipyard in Turku, Finland, as MS Cinderella for SF Line, one of the owners of the Viking Line consortium. She's currently used on cruise traffic from Stockholm to Mariehamn and occasionally Riga during the summer.
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The MS Bluefort was an accommodation vessel owned by the Canadian-based company Bridgemans Services Group LP. She was built in 1979 as a car/passenger ferry by Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany as Diana II av Slite for Rederi AB Slite for use in Viking Line's traffic. She has also sailed under the names Diana II, Vironia, Mare Balticum, Meloodia and ARV 1.
MS Svea Corona was a car-passenger ferry built in 1975 by Dubegion-Normandie S.A., Nantes, France for Rederi AB Svea, Sweden for Silja Line traffic. She was later rebuilt as a cruiseship and known under names MS Sundancer and MS Pegasus. She was scrapped in 1995 in Aliağa, Turkey.
MS Galaxy 1 is a cruise ferry built in 2006 by Aker Finnyards, Rauma, Finland and was at the time the largest ship delivered to ferry operator Tallink. Between 2006–2008 she held the distinction of being the largest ship ever to be registered in Estonia; a title later held by her replacement the sister ship MS Baltic Princess.
MS Victoria I is a cruiseferry owned by AS Tallink Grupp. It was chartered by the Scottish Government to provide temporary accommodation to those fleeing the war in Ukraine. The vessel was docked in the port of Leith, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The ship, which was chartered until July 2023, had been providing people with accommodation until they secure somewhere to stay longer term. It took in its first Ukrainian residents in July 2022.
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MS Saga is a cruiseferry owned by the Swedish shipping company Stena Line which it operated mainly on their route connecting Oslo, Norway to Frederikshavn, Denmark until March 2020, when that route was closed down. She was built as MS Silvia Regina in 1981 by Wärtsilä in Turku, Finland, for Rederi AB Svea for use in Silja Line traffic. The ship joined the Stena Line fleet in 1991, originally with the name MS Stena Britannica.
MS Baltic Princess is a cruiseliner owned by the Estonia-based ferry operator Tallink and operated under their Silja Line brand. She was built by Aker Finnyards Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland in 2008. The ship began service on the cruise route between Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia on 17 August 2008. From 1 February 2013 the ship began service on the Turku–Mariehamn–Stockholm route.
MS Svea Regina was a car and passenger ferry, built in 1972 by the Dubigeon Normandie shipyard in Nantes, France for Rederi AB Svea for use in Silja Line traffic. She subsequently sailed under the names Regina, Mediterranean Sun, Odysseas Eleytis, Scandinavia Sky, Tallink, El Tor, Monte Carlo and El Safa, until scrapped in Alang, India in 2005. As Svea Regina she was, together with her sister MS Aallotar, the first ship to start year-round daily traffic between Helsinki and Stockholm, the capitals of Finland and Sweden, respectively.
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![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(April 2009) |