Sally Cruise was a wholly owned subsidiary of

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 ...

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, ...

that operated

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s on 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 the years 1986 and 1992. It was merged into

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 ...

1992.

Company history

had been, until the early 1980s, the dominant partner in the

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 ...

consortium. However, due to investing in unprofitable operations outside the Baltic Sea they started losing their foothold in Viking during the mid-80s when the other partners (

SF Line SF Line was the name of the Finland, Finnish shipping company now known as Viking Line. The company, originally named Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan, was one of three shipping companies that formed shipping marketing company Viking Line in 1966, the o ...

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 ...

) took delivery of new tonnage that supplanted Sally's newest ships. In 1986 when Sally's MS ''Viking Saga'' was replaced by the new MS ''Olympia'', the decision was made not to sell the ''Viking Saga'' but use her to start a new company, Sally Cruise, to operate short cruises out of

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 ...

, Finland. At this time one-day cruises to nowhere were still a novel idea, the first ones had been made only the previous year by GTS ''Finnjet''. After a refit the ''Viking Saga'' re-emerged as MS ''Sally Albatross'', painted in an attractive white livery with dark and light blue bands running along her hull. Despite the ''Sally Albatross'' success her parent company's downward spiral continued, and in 1987 the company was sold to their main rivals Effoa and Johnson Line (owners of Silja Line). The change of ownership meant additional investments made in Sally Cruise, and the ''Sally Albatross'' was rebuilt in 1988. However, disaster struck in 1990 when the ''Sally Albatross'' was burnt out while in drydock at Finnboda,

Nacka Nacka () is the municipal seat of Nacka Municipality and part of Stockholm urban area in Sweden. The municipality's name harks back to a 16th-century industrial operation established by the Crown at Nacka farmstead where conditions for water mi ...

, Sweden. Sally Cruises quickly chartered MS ''Delfin Clipper'' from the short-lived Delfin Cruises and renamed her MS ''Sally Clipper'' to replace the burnt-out ''Sally Albatross''. By the end of the year 1990 the salvageable parts of the burnt-out ''Sally Albatross'' were being used to build a new ship, codenamed ''Sally Eurocruiser''. Before she was completed in 1992 Sally also chartered ''Sally Clipper''s sister ship MS ''Delfin Caravelle'' under the name ''Sally Caravelle'' in 1991. In March 1992 the new MS ''Sally Albatross'' debuted for Sally Cruise. However, in order to cut costs her owners

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

(a merger between Rederi Ab Sally, Effoa and Johnson Line created in 1990) decided to terminate Sally Cruise as an independent company in September 1992, and the company was merged in Silja Line.

Fleet

* MS ''Sally Albatross'' (1986–1990, 1992) * MS ''Sally Clipper'' (1990) * MS ''Sally Caravelle'' (1991)

References

{{reflist

External links

Sally Cruise at Fakta om Fartyg
(in Swedish) Defunct transport companies of Finland Defunct shipping companies Transport companies established in 1986 Transport companies disestablished in 1992 Defunct cruise lines 1992 disestablishments in Finland Finnish companies established in 1986