Smyril Line is a Faroese

shipping Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

company, linking the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

with

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. It previously also served

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. is the Faroese word for the merlin.

History

Since 1983, the company has operated a regular international passenger, car and freight service using MS ''Norröna'', a multi-purpose ferry built in

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

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 ...

in 2003. The original vessel on the route was a Swedish-built ferry named '' MV Norröna'' (built in 1973). The cost (about 100 million

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

) of building MS Norröna presented Smyril with financial difficulties, and public support had to guarantee the Faroese ship. In 2024, the holding company was owned by P/F 12.11.11 (59.5%), Framtaksgrunnur Føroya (Faroese Development Trust, 6.3%), the Faroese Government (16.2%), and the rest of the shares (18%) were owned by several minor stakeholders.

Passenger operations

The service serves

Tórshavn Tórshavn (; ; Danish language, Danish: ''Thorshavn''), usually locally referred to as simply Havn, is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of th ...

in the

, Seyðisfjörður in

, and Hirtshals, in

. , the passenger service is halted between the Faroe Islands and Iceland during winter time, between mid-November and mid-March. The crossing between Hirtshals and Tórshavn takes 38 hours in winter and 30 hours during the summer schedule. The onwards journey to Seyðisfjörður takes another 15 hours. The service is weekly, except the ferry departs Hirtshals twice during summer weeks. Until the end of the summer 2007 timetable, Smyril Line also served Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. Until the end of the summer 2008 timetable, Smyril Line also served Scrabster, Scotland and

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, Norway. Between 2009 and 2011 Smyril Line serviced Hanstholm (summer) and

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport city and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban area, urban population of 71,554 (1 January ...

(winter) in Denmark. In 2012, Smyril moved its Danish offices to Hirtshals.

Cargo

Smyril Line Cargo operates a fleet of five RoRo vessels: ''Eystnes'', ''Hvítanes'', ''Akranes,'' ''Mykines and Glyvursnes''. Cargo is also shipped on the ''Norröna''. ''Eystnes'' and ''Hvítanes'' connect Seyðisfjörður in

with Klaipeda in

and from there through Hirsthals and

, with ''Akranes'' connecting Rotterdam with

and Þórlakshöfn ports. The MV ''Mykines'' was added to the fleet in April 2017. Built at the Norwegian UMOE Sterkoder shipyard in 1996, it was previously operated as Auto Baltic for Bore shipping company in Finland. It measures 138.5 metres in length and 22.6 metres in width. As a RoRo ship it also takes unaccompanied cars as freight, providing an alternative to the Norröna. It sails from

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

via Tórshavn (stopping there northbound only) to

Þorlákshöfn Þorlákshöfn (, ) is a town on the southern coast of Iceland in the Municipality of Ölfus. The town is named after Saint Thorlak who was a bishop at Skálholt. Its main importance is as a port as it has the only harbour on Iceland's southern c ...

in Iceland. The ''Glyvursnes'' is the newest vessel, added in December 2023, taking over from the chartered ''Mistral''. The vessel was bought from the Finnish company , and was renamed from to ''Glyvursnes''. The vessel is 153.5 metres long and 20.6 metres wide, and it was built by the German shipyard ''J.J. Sietas'' in 1999. It sails between

, Þórlakshöfn, and Hirtshals. In 2024 February, Smyril Line signed a contract with the Chinese shipyard CIMC Raffles for two new cargo vessels. The delivery date is set for 2026, and both vessels will be 190 meters long and a capacity of 3300 lane meters. The vessels are designed by ''Knud E. Hansen''. The vessels will be equipped with a battery system, connection to shore power, and will be able to run on methanol.

References

External links

Smyril Line (official website in English)BBC News: Cars wrecked as ferry hit storms, 13 November 2007
{{Authority control Ferry companies of the Faroe Islands Ferry companies of Iceland Ferry companies of Denmark Organisations associated with Shetland Danish companies established in 1983

History

Passenger operations

Cargo

See also

References

External links