MS ''Birka Gotland'' is a

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 ...

owned jointly by

Rederi AB Gotland Destination Gotland is a Swedish ferry-line that runs state-subsidised domestic ferries from Nynäshamn and Oskarshamn to Visby on the island of Gotland. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rederi AB Gotland, also known as Gotlandsbolaget. The ...

and

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 ...

. She was built in 2004 by

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 ...

Rauma, Finland Rauma (; ) is a town in Finland, on the western coast of the country. Rauma is in the Satakunta region, by the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Rauma is approximately , while the sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the most p ...

for

Birka Line Birka Cruises (formerly Birka Line) was an Ålandian shipping company that operated a cruise ship on the Baltic Sea with Stockholm as the starting point under the name Birka Cruises. Birka Line has a cargo-shipping subsidiary, Birka Cargo. During ...

, later owned by Rederi Ab Eckerö, and operated under their Birka Cruises brand. She sailed as ''Birka Paradise'' until 2013 and as ''Birka Stockholm'' until 2024.

Concept and construction

''Birka Paradise'' was ordered by

from

, on 20 November 2002. She was the first new ship ordered by Birka Line since ''Birka Queen'', ordered in the late 1980s, but never delivered due to bankruptcy of the

Wärtsilä Marine Wärtsilä Marine (; ) was a Finland, Finnish shipbuilding company. The company was created in 1987 in order to improve shipbuilding productivity by combining the Wärtsilä and Valmet yards under the same organisation. The yards were located in ...

shipyard. The interior and exterior of ''Birka Paradise'' were jointly designed by Birka Line, Aker Finnyards and Deltamarin. Unlike most of Birka's previous vessels, the ship was designed from the beginning as a genuine cruise ship, without a car-deck. Following a naming competition that drew 3500 proposals, the ship was named ''Birka Paradise'' to reflect its design, reminiscent of a

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

cruise ship. The ship was designed with various environmentally friendly innovations; in addition to exhaust and closed sewage treatment systems already used on the company's ''Birka Princess'', ''Birka Paradise'' was built to fulfill

Det Norske Veritas Det Norske Veritas (DNV), formerly DNV GL, is an international accredited registrar and classification society headquartered in Høvik, Norway. DNV provides services for several industries, including maritime, oil and gas, renewable energy, e ...

' Clean Design rule relating to environmentally friendly structural solutions. Her hull form was optimised for smallest possible impact on the sensitive archipelago routes on which she sails. The keel of ''Birka Paradise'' was laid on 19 October 2003 and she was launched on 15 April 2004. Following her

sea trial A sea trial or trial trip is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on op ...

s on 19 August and 14 October, the ship was delivered to Birka Line on 8 November 2004. The ship then sailed via her port of registry

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 ...

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 ...

, where she was officially named on 10 November 2004 by

Arja Saijonmaa Arja Enni Helena Saijonmaa (born 1 December 1944) is a Finnish singer, political activist and occasional actress. Life and career She studied at the Sibelius Academy and earned a Bachelor of Arts at the Helsinki University. She made her brea ...

Service history

''Birka Paradise'' entered service on 11 November 2004 on a 22-hour cruise from Stockholm to Mariehamn, which has been her main route in Birka service. During Christmas 2004 she made a longer cruise from Stockholm, calling at

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 ...

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 ...

and Mariehamn. From 2006 onwards she has made various longer cruises from Stockholm around 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 ...

during the

northern hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

summer season. In January 2009 Rederi Ab Eckerö, owner of Birka Cruises since 2007, made public their plans to re-register ''Birka Paradise'' to Sweden "as soon as possible" in order to allow the sale of snuff on board. According to European Union (EU) legislation snuff may not be sold within the EU except in Sweden and on board ships registered in Sweden. Until November 2007 the province of

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 ...

in Finland allowed the sale of snuff on board ships registered in the province, but was forced to discontinue the practice when threatened by legal action by the EU. The outlawing of snuff sales caused the loss of approximately 1 million

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

per year for Birka Cruises, finally resulting in the decision to re-flag ''Birka Paradise''. The reflagging took place on 3 June 2009. Registered ownership of ''Birka Stockholm'' was transferred to Rederi Ab Eckerö in 2011. In January 2013 the ship was renamed ''Birka Stockholm'' and given new livery. The stripes on the hull were changed from blue, yellow and red to just blue and yellow, and the new "Birka Cruises" logo was placed on the funnel. According to the CEO, the company wanted to make a "change of profile" to a more Northern European theme. However, the company refers to the ship only as ''Birka'', dropping "Stockholm" which is part of the official name, as well as being the port of registry. Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic Rederi Ab Eckerö, ceased operations and the ship was put up for sale.

New ownership

On the 23rd of March 2023, Rederi AB Gotland announced that they bought the ''Birka Stockholm'' for approximately 38 million euro to be used for traffic between

and

Visby Visby () is an urban areas in Sweden, urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic League, ...

. The service is meant to begin in the spring of 2024. On the 9th of August 2023,

announced that a deal had been made to acquire 50% of the ship for 19 million Euro with the intention to form a company with shared ownership with Rederi AB Gotland, for the intended traffic previously outlined. When entering the service for the new company in April 2024, the ship will be renamed ''Birka Gotland''.

References

External links

Birka Cruises website in Swedish

Rederi Ab Eckerö

''Birka Stockholm'' at marinetraffic.com

MS ''Birka'' Video Clips

Birka Gotland Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birka Stockholm Cruise ships Ships built in Rauma, Finland 2004 ships