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34-403: The ship was ordered on 26 October 1987 by Effoa for Silja Line traffic. The ship had a revolutionary interior layout, with a promenade-street running alongside the central axis of the ship for nearly her full length. This allowed, among other things, for a larger number of cabins with windows (today such promenades are found in the most recent ships of Royal Caribbean and Color Line ). Before

68-472: A new Finnlines Group was born in 1990. In the following years Finnlines acquired Bore Line , the operations of which were incorporated into Finnlines in 1992. Around the same time Finnlines started collaboration with the German shipping company Poseidon Schiffahrt on Helsinki–Travemünde traffic, which was marketed under the name Finncarriers-Poseidon. During 1994 and 1995 four new combi-roro ships (known as

102-560: A result 75% of Finnlines was sold to other shipping companies. All Enso-Gutzeit ships sailing for Finncarriers were sold to Effoa or Neste Oy and all of Enso-Gutzeit's shares of Finncarriers were sold to Effoa. Finncarriers thus became a subsidiary of Effoa. Several mergers followed during the 1980s when Effoa merged various other companies it completely or partially owned into Finncarriers. In 1986 Enso-Gutzeit finally bowed out of shipping activities completely when they sold their remaining share of GTS Finnjet (25%) to Effoa, who transferred

136-824: 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 Baltic and the North Sea. Finnlines’ passenger-freight vessels offer services from Finland to Germany and via Åland to Sweden as well as from Sweden to Germany. The Company has subsidiaries in Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Poland. In addition to sea transportation,

170-443: Is the only direct connection by sea between Finland and Continental Europe. The other ropax services consist of the route between Malmö, Sweden, and Travemünde, Germany and between Naantali and the Åland Islands, Finland, and Kapellskär, Sweden. Finnlines was founded in 1947 as a subsidiary of Merivienti Oy , founded earlier the same year by Enso-Gutzeit and Kansaneläkelaitos , to operate Merivienti's liner service from Finland to

204-816: The Finnhansa . During the winter season the second Finnpartner was sent cruising to the Mediterranean . In the same year Finnlines also placed an order at the Wärtsilä Helsinki shipyard for a new gas turbine -powered ferry for the Finland-Germany service that was to be the largest, longest, and fastest in the world. Before the new ferry was delivered several changes occurred to Finnlines: in 1975 Finnlines and their rival Finland Steamship Company (FÅA, which later became Effoa) began collaborating in freight and passenger traffic. Finncarriers

238-600: The Hansa class ), capable of carrying 114 passengers alongside their freight capacity, were delivered for Finncarriers-Poseidon traffic. In 1997, Finnlines made a deal with the German Stinnes AG , essentially swapping the shared Finnlines ownership of the German company BLT with the full ownership of Poseidon Schiffahrt. As a result, the company name "Poseidon" disappeared from the sides of Finland-Germany ships and Poseidon became Finnlines Deutschland. With Poseidon,

272-711: The Jinling Shipyard in China, with planned delivery dates in 2010 for the first two vessels and 2011 for the remaining four. In January 2007, the Italian Grimaldi Group became the largest owner of Finnlines and expressed interest in purchasing the entire company. However, a public tender offer made to the other owners in November 2006 resulted in Grimaldi gaining only 85,029 stocks, or 0.18% of

306-487: The Serenade and her sister. The funnel of Serenade is constructed of steel, whereas that of her sister ship Symphony is made of aluminium. There are also some purely cosmetic differences: the outer decks of the Serenade are painted green (blue on Symphony ), the light box with the ship's name is blue (white on Symphony ) and the seal's eye in the funnel is white with a blue outline (solid blue on Symphony ). In 2014,

340-636: The Serenade to her original route, again sailing parallel to her sister ship Silja Symphony . In order to keep tax free sales on the Stockholm–Helsinki ships when the EU changed its tax free legislation, a stop at Mariehamn was added to the route in July 1999. In early 2006, just prior to the sale of Silja Line to Tallink , Serenade and her sister had their interiors extensively rebuilt at Turku Repair Yard , Naantali . There are some minor differences between

374-930: The Sunflower Oasis on deck 12 and the shops on deck 7. In 2020, services were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic , and in June, the vessel began operating a temporary ferry route between Helsinki and Riga, departing each capital city on alternate days. The Silja Serenade has a maximum capacity of 2,852 passengers, 450 cars and 65 freight vehicles. There are 986 cabins with a total of 2,841 berths, as well as several restaurants, bars, lounges, conference rooms, sports facilities and duty-free shops. [REDACTED] Media related to IMO 8715259 at Wikimedia Commons Effoa Finland Steamship Company ( Swedish : Finska Ångfartygs Aktiebolag , abbreviated FÅA , Finnish : Suomen Höyrylaiva Osakeyhtiö , abbreviated SHO )

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408-656: The oil crisis , meaning her operational costs were much higher than originally planned. After delivery of the Finnjet , the Finlandia was rebuilt into the cruise ship MS Finnstar , becoming Finnlines' first (and to date last) genuine cruise ship. The Finnstar ' s service was cut short by the Finnish maritime worker's strike of 1980, as result of which she ceased service and was laid up in Barcelona . In May 1981 she

442-701: The China Merchants Jinling Shipyard. Finnlines' roro cargo ships serve Finland, Russia, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Finnlines also maintains freight/passenger services on the routes Helsinki – Travemünde , Naantali – Kapellskär , Malmö – Travemünde and Malmö – Świnoujście . Rosslare-Zeebrugge Finnlines makes runs between Rosslare and Zeebrugge with six sailings per week (3 round trips). Current ships on

476-595: The Company provides port services in Finland in Helsinki and Turku. Finnlines’ roll-on/roll-off services cover the Finnish ports of Hanko, Helsinki, Kotka, Turku and Uusikaupunki, offering connections with Estonian, Polish, German, Danish, British, Dutch, Belgian and Spanish ports. Three Star-class ropax vessels (see Roll-on/roll-off § RORO variations ) operate between Helsinki and Travemünde. For passengers it

510-537: The Finnish mainland. When Silja Line acquired Silja Europa in 1993, the Serenade was moved to the Turku –Mariehamn–Stockholm route. The Silja Serenade was somewhat ill-suited for this route; her accommodations were not designed for daytime crossings and reportedly she steered poorly in the narrow archipelagoes of Stockholm, Åland and Turku. In 1995, it was decided that the Europa and Serenade switch routes, returning

544-554: The Soviet Union, mostly in industrial goods. With only 30% of the Finnish merchant fleet having survived the war, and 2/3 of the surviving ships being used by the Allied forces or under forced charter to the Soviet Union, new tonnage was desperately needed. In May and June 1947, Merivienti acquired three second-hand steamers for traffic into Europe. During the same year, Merivienti decided to start liner traffic from Finland to

578-475: The United States begun in 1948. The used ships were soon found to be too small and during the 1950s seven new freighters were delivered to various owners to be operated by Finnlines. At this time the company started using names with the "Finn" prefix that has become characteristic of their fleet. A line to the United Kingdom was opened in 1955. The company first begun carrying passengers in 1962, when

612-540: The United States. Merivienti Oy (English: Sea Export Ltd. ) was founded on 18 April 1947 by the Finnish forest industry giant Enso-Gutzeit and Kansaneläkelaitos (Finnish Social Insurance)—both completely or partially state-owned companies —to ensure transportation of forest industry products from Finland to Western Bloc countries. According to the 1947 Paries Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union , Finland had to pay US$ 300 million worth of war reparations to

646-462: The car ferry MS Hansa Express opened a new service linking Hanko , Finland to Travemünde , Germany via Visby in Sweden. The ship was found to be too small from the start, and Hanko a poor choice for the Finnish terminus of the line. The route was altered to Helsinki – Kalmar – Travemünde in 1963, and two large new ferries were delivered for the route in 1966. MS Finnhansa was the larger of

680-704: The east coast of the United States. With this in mind, Merivienti acquired three larger second-hand steamships, named SS  Hamina , SS  Pankakoski and SS  Tornator . To operate these ships, a new company Oy Finnlines Ltd, was founded in November 1947. Finnlines was a 100% subsidiary of Merivienti and owned no ships of its own—instead the Merivienti ships were operated by and marketed as Finnlines. In subsequent years, vessels owned by other companies, such as Enso-Gutzeit (for whom they managed SS  Enso ), Neste , Outokumpu , Yhtyneet Paperitehtaat , Amer-Tupakka and Thomesto . Finnlines' traffic into

714-627: The first vessel, MS Finnstar was delivered in August 2006 for the Helsinki–Travemünde service, MS Finnmaid followed later in the same year, while MS Finnlady , MS Europalink and MS Nordlink were delivered in February, March and July 2007, respectively. Coinciding with the delivery of MS Nordlink the old MS Malmö Link was sold. In August 2007 it was reported that Finnlines has ordered six new ice classed ro-ro vessels from

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748-541: 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 to restart passenger traffic between Helsinki and Stockholm , using Wellamo . The same ship was also the first to start passenger traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn after World War II in 1965. Finnlines Finnlines Plc ( Finnish : Finnlines Oyj , Swedish : Finnlines Abp )

782-541: The rest of Team Lines, and in 2002 the Swedish Nordö-Link (trafficking between Malmö and Travemünde) also became a Finnlines subsidiary. In 2004, Finnlines decided to further simplify the myriad of names under which it operated ships, merging Finnlink and Nordö-Link into the parent company. Finnlines also ordered five new large ro-pax ferries from the Italian shipyard Fincantieri . After numerous delays,

816-482: 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 Finnlines , while

850-631: The ship into the fleet of their other subsidiary Silja Line . In the same year a new company, Finnlink , was founded to operate freight between Finland and Sweden. The company's owners were mainly the same as the owners of Finnlines, and Finnlines itself owned 15% of Finnlink. A full turn-around in Effoa's operations took place in 1989 when the company decided to separate their freight-carrying operations from their passenger operations. In place of dividends, shares of Finncarriers were given to stock owners, and after several mergers, diffusions, and name-changes,

884-642: The ship was completed, Silja Line's owners Effoa and Johnson Line merged to form EffJohn, and it was to EffJohn that the Silja Serenade was delivered on 15 November 1990. On 18 November 1990, she began service on the Helsinki– Stockholm route. Her original homeport was Helsinki, but in 1992 she was reflagged to the Ålandian ship registry, her homeport altered to Mariehamn. This allowed Silja to make more money from her onboard slot machines and casino, due to legislation differences between Åland and

918-461: The steel seal was replaced with a painted one. When the ship docked in October 2010, the 13th deck was rebuilt, removing Silja Dream Theater, Club Bali and Chill Lounge. Instead, a New York-themed club and lounge was built. In January 2014, the ship was docked again at Turku Repair Yard. The Taxfree shop , Buffet Serenade, and Bistro Maxime restaurant on deck 6 were extensively rebuilt, as well as

952-582: The total. In October 2015, Grimaldi completed its acquisition of the entirety of Finnlines. In 2018, Finnlines ordered three new ro-ro ships from the Nanjing Jinling shipyard in China. Construction on the first ship in the class began in June 2020, with deliveries expected in 2021 and 2022. In January 2020, two new ro-pax vessels, named the Superstar class and to be Finnlines' largest ships upon their entry into service in 2023, were ordered from

986-404: The trainferry operator Railship and 40% of Team Lines also passed into Finnlines' ownership. In the same year Finnlines also became the sole owner of Finnlink. In 1999 Finnlines took delivery of two new ro-pax vessels, MS Finnclipper and MS Finneagle , both with a passenger capacity of over 400. In 2001 Finncarriers was merged into the parent company. In the same year Finnlines purchased

1020-758: The two sister ships, surpassing MS Finnpartner by ten centimeters; it was the largest ferry in the Baltic Sea at the time. Having two ferries year-round proved to be unprofitable and the Finnpartner was sold in 1969. In the late 60s Finnlines developed the Finnflow cargo-handling system, which resulted in the building of the company's first roll-on/roll-off freighters MS Finncarrier , MS Hans Gutzeit and MS Finnfellow . In 1973, Finnlines purchased MS Stena Atlantica from Stena Line and renamed her MS Finnpartner , for service to Germany alongside

1054-475: The winter seasons of 1975–76 and 76–77 (she was marketed under the name Finnpartner ). The new, large, fast GTS Finnjet was delivered to Finnlines in May 1977, replacing both of the old ferries on the route. With her 31-knot top speed the Finnjet was able to cross the Baltic in a mere 22 hours, and her accommodations were superior to those of any ferry of the day. Unfortunately she had also been designed before

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1088-535: Was a Finnish 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 consortium. In 1975 FÅA founded Finncarriers together with Finnlines as a joint freight operations venture. At

1122-505: Was formed as a joint freight operator, while the Finland Steamship Company's Finland-Germany passenger services were merged into Finnlines' services, bringing MS Finlandia to Finnlines' fleet. This meant the second Finnpartner was chartered to Olau Line . With the Finlandia and Finnhansa , Finnlines maintained a year-round service to Germany, while MS Bore Star was chartered from Bore Line for cruising for

1156-563: Was sold to the Loke Shipping Co. In October of the same year, the Finnjet was rebuilt with additional diesel engines, allowing for more economic operations during the off-season. In 1982, the first of the new jumbo- roll-on/roll-off ships was built for the Finland-United Kingdom run. Four sister ships were built over the next decade. Also in 1982, Enso-Gutzeit decided to give up its shipping activities and as

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