Gotlandsbolaget had ordered new generations of ferries in the early 1960s and 70s. In an attempt to save the Swedish shipyards, the government offered extensive shipyard subsidies in the late 1970s to encourage shipping companies to place orders in Sweden. This meant that Gotlandsbolaget was able to bring forward the order for a new generation of ferries. In the autumn of 1980, the Landskronabuilt Visby was delivered, which was to become perhaps the most appreciated ferry ever for the Gotlanders.
Ordered with subsidies
Two large car and passenger ferries, each with a capacity of 2,000 passengers and over 500 passenger cars, were ordered by Gotlandsbolaget in November 1978 from Öresundsvarvet in Landskrona. This was good news for the struggling yard and was estimated to provide employment for 2 400 people until the end of 1980/81. The contract value was around SEK 240 million per ship, but Gotlandsbolaget paid only SEK 137 million each as the state stepped in with substantial shipyard subsidies to ensure that the order would go to a Swedish yard.
The background to the extensive state aid was that in the mid-1970s Swedish shipyards were in an acute economic crisis, partly due to increasing competition, currency losses and the global oil crisis. Öresundsvarvet in Landskrona had 3 500 employees in the mid-1970s when the crisis worsened. In 1977, the state took over several shipyards and formed Svenska Varv. In addition to Öresundsvarvet, Arendal, Cityvarvet, Finnboda Varf, Karlskronavarvet and Uddevallavarvet also became part of Svenska Varv. A major restructuring of Swedish shipbuilding began, and generous shipyard subsidies were paid to safeguard thousands of jobs.
Less than a year after Gotlandsbolaget’s order, on 15 October 1979, construction of the first newbuilding, with number 278, started at Öresundsvarvet. On 25 January 1980, she was launched without a name, and the idea was that she would be delivered before the peak season for Gotland traffic got under way.
Despite the order of these “jumbo ferries” and a few other newbuildings, the board of Svenska Varv decided in the autumn of 1980 to close down Öresundsvarvet. In addition to the yard’s structural problems, the production costs of Gotlandsbolaget’s two sister ships skyrocketed, resulting in heavy losses for the yard. The two newbuildings, contracted at 240 million each, ended up costing up to 400 million per ship.
The closure of Öresund Shipyard became Sweden’s most extensive redundancy announcement ever. The last ship, number 282, was delivered in 1982.
Laid up after delivery
In Öresundsvarvet’s staff magazine, the following report was included in the November 1980 issue:
In the last streak of pale autumn sunshine on Friday 10 October, the new ferry of the Gotland ferry company was lit up. It felt liberating to finally know that she would be named Visby. In other words, it was a baptism on Öresundsvarvet for the first time in a long time. M/s Visby was christened by Mrs Marieann Nilsson, wife of Eric D. Nilsson, chairman of the board of Rederi AB Gotland, commonly known as Gotlandsbolaget. “Your name shall be Visby. May happiness and prosperity follow you and your crew on the seas”, Mrs Nilsson proclaimed.
Then it took two attempts to smash the traditional champagne bottle. And there was no real bang, by the way. At least from a small distance it sounded off. Earlier, our CEO, Stig Nerell, had welcomed the hundred or so guests to the shipyard and the christening. The christening witnesses consisted of the Gotlandsbolaget’s board and management, representatives of Öresundsvarvet’s board and management and staff organisations. Outside guests included County Governor Nils Hörjel and his wife. After the short christening ceremony, completed in a few minutes, the guests gathered for cocktails in Visby’s aft bar on the 6th deck and a few hours later the newly christened vessel left the shipyard bound for Gotland.
However, the maiden voyage and the first trips did not go smoothly. A radar went haywire, a cooling water intake leaked and a turbine wouldn’t work. In addition, difficulties were experienced in approaching Visby harbour. One reason for this was that the ship had become about 800 tonnes heavier than designed, which led to a slightly greater draught. After only a few weeks of service, she therefore returned to Landskrona to repair the faults and to await the dredging and reconstruction of Visby harbour. After the shipyard visit she went to Slite where she was laid up. It was not an honourable report that the newspaper Svenska dagbladet published in January 1981:
Gotland’s new giant ferry has been lying abandoned in the snow in Slite harbour since November. It doesn’t seem that anyone wants her, a piece of insane megalomania for 237 million. Everyone is asking why Gotlandsbolaget would want this boat? She is unsuitable for the traffic for which she was built. The harbour in Visby is too shallow and too narrow in heavy weather. It is like buying a Lunkentuss and only having a small dog basket to store it in. And then there is another Lunkentuss stomping around in the entrance hall. On 10 July, a sister boat is delivered, which does not arrive in Visby either. The port of Visby is currently being rebuilt at a cost of 100 million SEK. On 15 May a harbour with a depth of 7 metres has been promised. Maybe the giant ferries will fit then.
The story of Gotland’s ferry business is beginning to have its hilarious points. Firstly, it was not at all the intention to order such beasts, nor were they needed this early. The company has two excellent Yugoslavian-built boats to operate with, Visby (now Drotten) and Gotland, built in 1972 and 1973 respectively. Normally these vessels would have been sufficient until the mid-1980s, although both freight and tourist traffic are increasing. But then there was a shipyard crisis and the government started to nag. If Gotlandsbolaget wanted to order two jumbo ferries, it would get all the financial help it needed, because the government wanted to save employment at the Öresund shipyard in Landskrona. The ferries would cost 237 million each, and Gotlandsbolaget would get away with paying 137 million per boat.
Just in time for the 1980 tourist season, the first Giant was to be delivered, but she never arrived. Not until October, when the last tourist had long since left for the mainland. Given that the harbour in Visby is no deeper than six metres, the new ferries were ordered to be no deeper than 4.85 metres. When the giant was finally sighted on a misty October day, christened Visby, she was 800 tons heavier than intended and went 40 cm too deep. On 22 October she arrived in Visby with a draft of 5.28 at the bow and 5.22 at the stern. They scratched their heads and measured again on 23 October and got the figures 5.32 in the bow, 5.20 in the stern. On 24 October they had managed to get the nose up so that the bow was 5 metres even and the stern 5.15. With less than a metre of water under the 143-metre hull, the 32,000 horsepower was barely able to shake the ship in the harbour. Fortunately, it was never subjected to particularly rough weather.
For three weeks she was allowed to dance, and then she broke so that a dry tank was filled with 100 tonnes of salt water. The damage was presumed to be due to grounding, but during docking in Landskrona, a leaking cooling water intake was discovered. After the damage was repaired, Gotlandsbolaget announced that the barge would be taken out of service. They would try to get her chartered out to some ferry line on the continent, it was said. It’s good for the economy and the guarantee that the boat is running, so that any other building error can be detected. But no ferry company wanted her. So she is moored in Slite, costing SEK 60 000 a day in interest, plus the salaries of the eight crew members on board, harbour rent and diesel oil for heating.
Lennart Jansson, chief on board, stands on a command bridge the size of the Eiffel Tower restaurant, and sighs. The ferry is the tallest building in the community and rises above the rooftops wherever you turn in Slite. Surely this community, dominated by uninspiring cement factories, could do with a new skyline. But for an old sailor, it is not enough to be in Slite and be silhouetted. He hopes for the new harbour in Visby or a new charter – whatever it is, as long as you can get to sea! “It’s an excellent ship,” assures this old rowing rigger from Yxlan who has been in Gotlandsbolaget’s service since 1964.
Despite the fact that Gotlandsbolaget received a compensation of seven million for the late delivery of the first lunkentuss boat, the ferry business has whipped the company’s finances in a way that has come to the Gotlanders’ rescue. It is estimated that the company will lose 100 million. According to the agreement with the state, the shipping company has so excellently arranged that the state pays the losses. It calculates income and expenditure, gives the shareholders a guaranteed index-linked dividend, SEK 13 per share last year, and then takes the missing money out of the state coffers. Now that the loss is expected to be 100 million, the state’s representative on the board, State Secretary Hans Sandebring, has started to put the brakes on. 70 million, not a krona more! The company will have to save 30 million. The company’s former director, Eric D. Nilsson, now chairman of the board, wants to take up an offer from Stena Line, which wants to rent the ferry in Slite for two years for 20 million a year. The chairman of the board of directors and its member of the government are speaking freely in the local press. Gotlandsbolaget’s managing director Jan Helleberg has not had many words to say. Overwhelmed by two lunkentuss ferries and two board members, he sits in his office down by the harbour square in Visby and is painfully quiet.
“As I see it, Gotlandsbolaget is aiming to put its new ferry into service on 15 May, as well as its sister ferry, which will arrive on 10 July,” he says in summary. He does not want to hear of any sale of the barges, nor does he want to comment on the leasing of one of them to Stena Line. And the newspapers say that the ferries cost 237 million each, which is only a price on paper – in reality they cost 400 million each!
“I’ve seen those figures, but in that case it’s a deal between the state and the shipyard, we’ve paid 137 million per boat. The state has paid the rest in the form of a 30% commissioning subsidy and a subsidy of 28 million per boat.”
137 million is roughly what the sheet metal in the boats alone costs. Gotland and the taxpayers are eagerly awaiting the continuation of Gotlandsbolaget’s staggering ferry business.
Hans Sandebring – the state’s representative on the board of Gotlandsbolaget – did not mince words and spoke out on another occasion:
It is possible that the ferries, which carry 2,100 passengers, could fill up during the summer. But at this time of year, the company might have a hundred passengers per trip. It was wrong to order the ferries, which only increase the company’s losses. This year they are estimated at SEK 100 million, compared with SEK 50 million last year, and these losses are borne entirely by the taxpayer.
Sandebring blamed the former government for building the ferries to secure employment at Öresundsvarvet, and he said he was prepared to demand that “this strange agreement with the state” be reconsidered.
On 31 May 1981, however, the reconstruction of Visby harbour was completed and Visby could finally be put into regular service between Visby and Nynäshamn. The sister ship Wasa Star, which initially was planned to be named Gotland, was to be delivered three weeks later but had already been hired out for other services. Two beams in the service was far too costly. However, the Gotlanders had their first “jumbo ferry”, which was to become extremely popular for three decades in the Gotland traffic.
Charter to Gotlandslinjen
After a long period of dissatisfaction with the development of costs for Gotland traffic, the government decided in February 1987 to grant the Stockholm shipping company Nordström & Thulin AB a concession for ferry traffic between Gotland and the mainland as of 1 January 1988. The agreement was valid until 31 December 1997, with the possibility of termination by 31 December 1995 at the latest. The news hit Gotland like a bomb.
Nordström & Thulin, which set up the subsidiary Gotlandslinjen AB for the purpose, had no experience of passenger traffic and had little preparation time to find suitable tonnage. A quick solution was therefore to hire the m/s Visby from Gotlandsbolaget for continued Gotland traffic. In addition, an older ro-ro vessel was purchased from Stena and converted into the car and passenger ferry Graip.
In order to manage the operational management of Gotlandstrafiken, N&T entered into an agreement with Johnson Line, which formed the subsidiary Johnson Baltic Trafficmanagement, JBT. JBT was thus awarded the charter contract for Visby and the task of manning and operating the vessel. The rent amounted to a full 31 million per year for two years, which was an excellent deal for Gotlandsbolaget and far more profitable than running her themselves in the Gotland traffic. Visby was given the yellow-blue emblem of Gotlandslinjen in the funnel, but kept its name during the charter.
Irish Sea’s finest ferry
After the loss of Gotlandstrafiken, Gotlandsbolaget had also managed to charter out the ro-ro ship Gute to Australia and sell the Yugoslavia built Gotland to the Mediterranean, and it now had plenty of time to find a new commitment for m/s Visby once Gotlandslinjen’s two-year charter expired. In September 1989, Gotlandsbolaget signed a multi-year charter contract with Sealink British Ferries for m/s Visby to replace the ferry St Brendan. The newspaper Dagens Industri reported:
It’s time for a family feud when Bert-Åke Eriksson, CEO of Rederi AB Gotland, meets his brother-in-law Dan Sten Olsson. Reason: In the midst of Dan Sten Olsson’s fierce battle over the Bermuda-registered shipping company Sea Containers, Bert-Åke Eriksson and Gotlandsbolaget gives Sea Containers and its egocentric chairman and principal owner James Sherwood a helping hand. Gotlandsbolaget leases its flagship ferry, the Visby, to Sea Containers’ subsidiary Sealink British Ferries. A brilliant deal for Gotlandsbolaget, which reportedly receives around SEK 260 million in rent for the ferry over a five-year period. Bert-Åke Eriksson, a former departmental secretary in the Ministry of Transportations, became CEO of Gotlandsbolaget in the early 1980s. He is married to Sten A Olsson’s daughter Madeleine, i.e. Dan Sten Olsson’s younger sister.
“I don’t know what Dan Sten thinks about this deal. My job is to run Gotlandsbolaget and make sure our business is profitable. That is what our shareholders demand,” says Bert-Åke Eriksson.
In 1989, N&T Gotlandslinjen had purchased the Dutch ferry Olau Hollandia to replace the chartered Visby, which could be returned to Gotlandsbolaget as planned. On New Year’s Eve 1989, Visby left its home port for the last time in – as it turned out – eight years. She went to the yard in Gothenburg for overhaul in preparation for the charter to Sealink British Ferries. After delivery to the British, she was renamed Felicity in Tilbury on the first of February where she lay for refit which included new bars, shopping areas and restaurants. Two million pounds were invested by Sealink British Ferries in the adaptations of the new ferry.
On 14 February, Felicity departed Tilbury but due to trade union protests she went straight to Dunkirk in France for lay-up instead of being put on the planned service between Rosslare in Ireland and Fishguard in Wales. In March, however, she entered service and Felicity was an instant success with her fine passenger accommodation. Felicity was regarded as the most exclusive ferry ever to sail the Irish Sea and she became very popular with passengers. Gotlandsbolaget had its own assistant masters on board during the charter, but otherwise Sealink British Ferries manned Felicity.
Already one month after Felicity started operating, the battle between Stena Line and Sea Containers ended with Stena buying out Sealink British Ferries for £259 million. The deal that made Stena the world’s largest ferry operator was completed in late autumn, and on 26 November 1990 Felicity was renamed Stena Felicity. The company name of the UK operation was initially changed to Sealink Stena Line.
The charter of Stena Felicity was extended after five years and she sailed between Rosslare and Fishguard until July 1997 when she was replaced by Koningin Beatrix. In the summer of 1997 Stena Felicity was returned to Gotlandsbolaget, which was now to resume Gotland services and therefore needed its chartered-out ferry from the coming turn of the year.
Long-awaited return
Stena Felicity left Rosslare for the last time on 3 July 1997 and was returned to Gotlandsbolaget a little later. However, the Gotlanders were dissatisfied to say the least with the condition of their ferry – “look what you did to our ship!” they proclaimed loudly to Stena. Anyway, Stena Felicity then sailed to Bremerhaven for an extensive refit before returning to the Gotland service. In addition to a major refurbishment and redesign of the interior, she also received sponsons in the stern due to new stability requirements and catalytic converters on the main engines, among other things.
Shortly after midnight on 16 December 1997, the ferry – now renamed Visby – arrived in Visby harbour with the familiar white G in the funnel. The final preparations were made during the Christmas holidays and from 1 January 1998 Gotlandsbolaget was once again in charge of the service that had been started back in 1866.
When Visby returned to Gotlandstrafiken, travellers could enjoy a home-style buffet and Gotland hamburgers in the brand new restaurant area on deck 7, or à la carte in the pub aft. Refreshments, coffee and snacks were also available in the Skybar on deck 10 or in the café aft on deck 6. The new shop was located on deck 7 adjacent to the restaurant square, and the children’s playroom with the popular ball pool was still available on deck 9. The 200-seat cinema lounge on deck 2 was also still there, showing current films.
Drill ended in tragedy
On the morning of 10 April 2002, an evacuation exercise was carried out on board the Visby at the quay in the port of Visby. The purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate to the Maritime Inspectorate the vessel’s new safety organisation. The main purpose was to show how passengers could be evacuated in an emergency situation from the passenger accommodation on deck 2 under the car deck. For the exercise, the shipping company had engaged 318 extras to act as passengers, and the Maritime Inspectorate had its observers on board.
After the extras and observers had taken their places, the exercise started with a fake fire in an engine room. The crew was alerted and a fire team was sent out to start fighting the fire. Passengers were informed that the ship would be evacuated. The closing of the ship’s watertight doors was activated from the bridge, including the automatic closing of two doors located in the passenger compartments on deck 2 that were open.
When the fire crew arrived to the engine room, they found a man trapped in one of the watertight doors there. They got him free, started resuscitation attempts and called an ambulance, but paramedics could only conclude that he had unfortunately died. The deceased was an electrical engineer, now temporarily employed to carry out electrical work, but well acquainted with the ship and the operation of the watertight doors, and a former member of the Visby crew.
The Accident Investigation Board, which investigated the accident, considered that the probable cause of the accident was that the deceased did not follow the instructions for safe passage through watertight doors, but that contributory causes of the accident were that
- The accident door had a short closing time.
- The closing of the doors was activated from the bridge.
- There was no indication showing when a closed watertight door is activated from the bridge.
- The master did not use the resources on the bridge, i.e. the management team.
Polish sale close to failure
On 13 January 2003, Visby was formally renamed Visborg as the first China newbuilding nearing delivery was to take over the name. However, it took a week before the new name was painted on the hull at the ferry.
On Saturday 29 March 2003 at 12:00 Visborg started its last journey in Gotlandstrafiken as the China-built Visby was now ready to be put into regular service. After arriving in Visby from Oskarshamn, the ship started to be cleared out and on the first of April she left Visby for further lay-up in Kappelshamn. In early May she arrived at Öresundsvarvet in Landskrona where she was docked for general overhaul and for repair of a small damage of the hull that had occurred during lay-up in Kappelshamn. Several companies showed interest in Visborg and a contract with Polferries was rumoured to have been signed, but fell due to the Poles’ failure to resolve the financing issue. Other speculations included an Australian diving company and Scandlines.
On the third of July the name Scandinavia was painted on the ship while she was at Öresundsvarvet, and the next day Gotlandsbolaget announced that the ship had been sold to Polferries (after all). On 6 July she left for the Remontowa shipyard in Gdansk for refitting for the new owners.
An anecdote in Bergenek and Brogren’s book Passengers at Sea claims that when Polferries backed down on the purchase price in the final stages of the deal, Eric D Nilsson sent some employees down to Gdansk, wearing the Gotlandsbolaget’s clothes, to consult with the port authorities about the possibilities of starting up a competing service between Sweden and Poland. Polferries then quickly accepted the required purchase price and the deal went through. True or not, it is a good story.
The sale of the vessel was a really good deal for Gotlandsbolaget. In the financial statements for 2003, the company reported a sales profit of almost SEK 200 million. The Visby and its sister ship, the Wasa Star, had been built with extensive shipyard support, which is why the state had agreed with Gotlandsbolaget to share any capital gains on the sale of the vessels. Since the State had terminated the concession contract with Gotlandsbolaget and signed a new contract with Nordström & Thulin, the clause fell and the entire capital gain on the sale of Visborg was assigned to Gotlandsbolaget instead.
On 17 July 2003 at noon, Scandinavia arrived Nynäshamn repainted in Polferries’ colours on her first voyage from Gdansk. She had departed Gdansk at 18.00 the previous day under the command of Wojciech Sobkowiak and with some 1 200 passengers and 280 passenger cars on board.
At the time of the sale of Visborg, Gotlandsbolaget was still listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and was then subject to an immediate obligation to provide information on more significant business events. Polferries had requested that the purchase price for m/s Visborg should be a business secret and when Gotlandsbolaget could not guarantee this because of stock exchange rules, Polferries had threatened to cancel the deal. For Gotlandsbolaget’s major shareholders, this was a direct contributing factor to their decision to initiate a delisting from the stock exchange. After a stormy debate in the media, an overwhelming majority at an extraordinary general meeting in November 2003 decided that Gotlandsbolaget should be delisted. CEO Jan-Erik Rosengren commented:
We have no advantage from being on the stock exchange. Gotlandsbolaget has no need for venture capital and on the stock exchange it is quarterly economics that apply. For a shipping company, it is not interesting what it earns in a single quarter.
Aktiespararna, an interest organization of shareholders, was not impressed and their representative Gunnar Ek thundered in the press:
It is totally unacceptable that a company with 3,400 shareholders should be delisted so that the shareholders can no longer trade their shares in a reasonable manner.
Since the delisting, Gotlandsbolaget’s shares have been traded through a small stockbroker in Stockholm.
Traffic across the Adriatic
On 8 May 2015, Scandinavia made her last voyage between Nynäshamn and Gdansk when she was to be replaced by the larger but equally old ferry Wavel – once built for Nordörederiet. Scandinavia’s captain Krzysztof Ryks signalled with the typhoon as he set sail from the quay in Nynäshamn for the last time – nearly 35 years after the ship’s very first call.
The buyer of the Scandinavia was the Greek company Ventouris Ferries, which renamed her Rigel II and put her into service between Bari in Italy and Durres in Albania. The sister ship to Visby – which was intended to be the Gotland – has also sailed the Bari-Durres route for a number of years, but for a different company. After nearly four decades in different waters, the sister ships finally sailed the same route.
Timeline
| 1980-10-10 | Delivered as Visby to Rederi AB Gotland, Visby. |
| 1988-01-01 | Two-year charter to N&T Gotlandslinjen AB begins. |
| 1990-01-01 | Departed Visby for charter to Sealink British Ferries, United Kingdom. Renamed Felicity. |
| 1990-12 | Renamed Stena Felicity after Stena Line UK bought Sealink. |
| 1997-12-13 | Renamed Visby. Entered Destination Gotland’s service on 1 January 1998. |
| 2003-01-13 | Renamed Visborg. |
| 2003-07-04 | Sold to Adabar Co, Ltd, Nassau, Bahamas (Polska Zegluga Baltyska). Renamed Scandinavia. |
| 2015-05-11 | Sold and delivered to Ventouris Ferries, Piraeus. Renamed Rigel II the following day. |
Specification
| Lenght | 142,59 m |
| Beam | 24,52 m |
| Gross tonnage | 14932 brt |
| Deadweight | 2840 ton |
| Machinery | 4 x B&W 8K45 GUC, 21476 kW, 21 knots |
| Pax | 2072 |
| Capacity | 515 cars, or 50 lorries and 175 cars |
| Call Sign/IMO | SIJM/7826788 |