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MS ''Estonia'' was a car-passenger ferry built in 1980 for the Finnish shipping company Rederi Ab Sally by
Meyer Werft Meyer Werft (; ) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. It was founded in 1795, as a builder of small wooden vessels. It has been owned and managed by the Meyer family for seven generations. Since ...
, in
Papenburg Papenburg (; East Frisian Low Saxon: ''Papenbörg'') is a city in the district of Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany, situated at the river Ems. It is known for its large shipyard, the Meyer-Werft, which specializes in building cruise liners. Ge ...
,
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
. She was deployed on ferry routes between Finland and Sweden by various companies (first Viking Line, then EffJohn) until the end of January 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 The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
between Sweden, Finland and Estonia, was one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters of the 20th century, claiming 852 lives. An official inquiry found that failure of the locks on the bow visor caused water to flood the car deck and quickly capsize the ship. The report also noted a lack of crew action. A 2023 investigation noted additional construction flaws in the bow visor.


Construction

The ship was originally ordered from the
Meyer Werft Meyer Werft (; ) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. It was founded in 1795, as a builder of small wooden vessels. It has been owned and managed by the Meyer family for seven generations. Since ...
shipyard in
Papenburg Papenburg (; East Frisian Low Saxon: ''Papenbörg'') is a city in the district of Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany, situated at the river Ems. It is known for its large shipyard, the Meyer-Werft, which specializes in building cruise liners. Ge ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
by a Norwegian shipping company led by Parley Augustsen with intended traffic between Norway and Germany. At the last moment, the company withdrew their order and the contract went to Rederi Ab Sally, one of the partners in the Viking Line consortium ( SF Line, another partner in Viking Line, had also been interested in the ship). Originally the ship was conceived as a sister ship to ''Diana II'', built in 1979 by the same shipyard for Rederi AB Slite, the third partner in Viking Line. When Sally took over the construction contract, the ship was lengthened from the original length of approximately to approximately and the superstructure of the ship was largely redesigned. Viking Line received a total of four new ships in 1980 alone, three of which were built for Rederi AB Sally. In addition to the ''Viking Sally'', the ''Viking Saga'' and her sister ship ''Viking Song'' also entered service in 1980, having been built by
Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish corporation, Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the Marine propulsion, marine and energy markets. The core ...
(now
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 ...
) in
Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...
, Finland. Meyer Werft had constructed a large number of ships for various Viking Line partner companies during the 1970s. The construction of the ship's bow consisted of an upwards-opening
visor A visor (also spelled vizor) is a surface that protects the eyes, such as shading them from the sun or other bright light or protecting them from objects. Nowadays many visors are transparent, but before strong transparent substances such a ...
and a car ramp that was placed inside the visor when it was closed. An identical bow construction had also been used in ''Diana II''.


Service history

''Estonia'' previously sailed as ''Viking Sally'' (1980–1990), ''Silja Star'' (1990–1991), and ''Wasa King'' (1991–1993).


Viking Line

On 29 June 1980, ''Viking Sally'' was delivered to Rederi Ab Sally, Finland and was put into service on the route between
Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...
,
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 ...
and
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
(during summer 1982 on the
Naantali Naantali (; ) is a municipalities of Finland, town in Southwest Finland, and, as a resort town during the summer, an important centre of tourism in the country. The municipality has a population of (), and is located west of Turku. The town h ...
–Mariehamn–
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 ...
route). She was the largest ship to serve on that route at the time. As with many ships, ''Viking Sally'' suffered some mishaps during her Viking Line service, being grounded in the
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 ...
Archipelago in May 1984 and suffering some propeller problems in April of the following year. In 1985 she was also rebuilt with a "duck tail". In 1986, a passenger was murdered on board. In 1987, another murder and attempted murder took place. The latter remains unsolved. Rederi Ab Sally had been experiencing financial difficulties for most of the 1980s. In late 1987, Effoa and Johnson Line, the owners of Viking Line's main rivals Silja Line, bought Sally. As a result of this, SF Line and Rederi AB Slite forced Sally to withdraw from Viking Line. ''Viking Sally'' was chartered to Rederi AB Slite to continue on her current traffic for the next three years.


Silja Line

When her charter ended in April 1990, ''Viking Sally'' had an unusual change of service. She was painted in Silja Line's colours, renamed ''Silja Star'' and placed on the same route that she had plied for Viking Line: Turku–Mariehamn–Stockholm. The reason for this was that Silja's new ship for
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
–Stockholm service was built behind schedule and one of the Turku–Stockholm ships, ''Wellamo'', was transferred to that route until the new ship was complete in November 1990. Also in 1990 Effoa, Johnson Line and Rederi Ab Sally merged into EffJohn. The following spring ''Silja Star'' began her service with Wasa Line, another company owned by EffJohn. Her name was changed to ''Wasa King'' and she served on routes connecting
Vaasa Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ),Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; ; ; ; ) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, Umeå is the largest Urban areas in Sweden, locality in Norrland and the t ...
and
Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. Old town i ...
in Sweden. It has been reported that the ''Wasa King'' was widely considered to be the best behaving ship in rough weather to have sailed from Vaasa.


Estline

In January 1993, at the same time when EffJohn decided to merge Wasa Line's operations into Silja Line, ''Wasa King'' was sold to Nordström & Thulin for use on Estline's
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
–Stockholm traffic under the name ''Estonia''. The actual ownership of the ship was rather complex, in order for Nordström & Thulin to get a loan to buy the ship. Although Nordström & Thulin was the company which bought the ship, her registered owner was Estline Marine Co Ltd, Nicosia, Cyprus, which chartered the ship to E.Liini A/S, Tallinn, Estonia (daughter company of Nordström & Thulin and ESCO), which in turn chartered the ship to Estline AB. As a result, the ship was actually registered in both Cyprus and Estonia. As the largest Estonian-owned ship of the time, the ''Estonia'' symbolized the independence that her namesake regained after the collapse of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
."The Sinking of the Estonia." '' Surviving Disaster'

''
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
''.


Decks and facilities

MS ''Estonia'' consisted of 11 decks, counting from the lowest (0) to the highest (10). Passenger facilities were located on decks 6, 5, 4, and 1, while the crew members occupied decks 8 and 7. Decks 2 and 3 were dedicated to cargo. File:Kuva3 12s.gif, Plans of the decks 0 to 5, as the tank deck File:Kuva3 1s.gif, Plans of the decks 6 to 10


As ''Viking Sally''


Sinking

''Estonia'' sank on Wednesday, 28 September 1994, between about 00:50 and 01:50 (
UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...
) as the ship was crossing the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
, en route from
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
, Estonia, to
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, Sweden. The official report concluded that the bow door had separated from the vessel, pulling the ramp ajar. The ship was already listing because of poor cargo distribution, and the list increased rapidly, flooding the decks and the cabins. Power soon failed altogether, inhibiting search and rescue, and a full-scale emergency was not declared for 90 minutes. Of the 989 on board, 137 were rescued. The report criticised primarily the ship's construction, as well as the passive attitude of the crew, failing to notice that water was entering the vehicle deck, delaying the alarm, and providing minimal guidance from the bridge. The HBO documentary raised other possibilities for the sinking including a hit or collision with an object of about 1000 tons. The sinking was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th-century.Boesten, E. (2006): The M/S Estonia Disaster and the Treatment of Human Remains. In: Bierens, J.J.L.M. (ed.): ''Handbook on Drowning'': 650–652. . It is one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a European ship, after the RMS ''
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
'' (1912) and the RMS ''Empress of Ireland'' (1914), and the deadliest peacetime shipwreck to have occurred in European waters, with 852 lives lost. There are memorials for the event in
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
and
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
.


See also

* List of RORO vessel accidents * List of accidents and disasters by death toll * List of shipwrecks in 1994 * ''Estonia'' (TV series), 2023 Finnish television series about the sinking of the ferry


References


Cited sources

* *


External links


The Ferry Site: Images of MS Estonia (when she was named Viking Sally and Silja Star)A Sea Story (from ''The Atlantic'')
{{DEFAULTSORT:Estonia Ferries of Estonia Cruiseferries Ships built in Papenburg 1980 ships