MS Nordlandia
Encyclopedia
MS
Motor ship
A motor ship or motor vessel is a ship propelled by an internal combustion engine, usually a diesel engine. The name of motor ships are often prefixed with MS, M/S, MV or M/V.- See also :...
Nordlandia is a cruiseferry
Cruiseferry
A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship with a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while others use the ships as means of...
owned by the Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
shipping company Eckerö Line
Eckerö Line
Eckerö Line is a Finnish shipping companies owned by the Åland-based Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö. Eckerö Line operates two ferries between Helsinki and Tallinn...
on their route connecting Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland, to Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
. She was built in 1981 by AG Weser Seebeckswerft, Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
for Olau Line
Olau Line
Olau Line was a shipping company that existed between the years 1956 and 1994. It operated a ferry service from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands from 1974 until 1994. Originally based in Denmark, the company passed under ownership of the German TT-Line in 1980.-History:Olau Line was founded in...
as MS Olau Hollandia. Between 1989 and 1997 she sailed as MS Nord Gotlandia for Gotlandslinjen.
Olau Line
MS Olau Hollandia was the first newbuild ever to be built for Olau LineOlau Line
Olau Line was a shipping company that existed between the years 1956 and 1994. It operated a ferry service from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands from 1974 until 1994. Originally based in Denmark, the company passed under ownership of the German TT-Line in 1980.-History:Olau Line was founded in...
. Up until that point the company had operated with used ships purchased or chartered from other companies, but after TT-Line
TT-Line
TT-Line is a shipping company based in Lübeck, Germany, which has been providing a ferry service between Travemünde in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Trelleborg in southern Sweden since 1962. From 1992 on, Rostock is also offered as starting harbor to Trelleborg...
acquired Olau in 1979, the new owners invested in building two new cruiseferries for the company. The Olau Hollandia and her sister were more than twice the size of the largest ferries operated by Olau before that point (they were also larger than any ships operated by TT-Line at the time). The Olau Hollandia was built to be "NATO-compatible", so that she could easily be converted to a troopship if required. She was also built with a thicker hull than normal, enough to be classified under Finnish ice class
Ice class
Ships with an Ice Class have a strengthened hull to enable them to navigate through sea ice.-History:The first requirements for merchant ships to be escorted by icebreakers were set in Finland in 1890, after winter traffic to the port of Hanko was started. In the past, different classification...
1 A Super (the highest possible class) when she began service on the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
without any structural changes to her hull.
On 21 March 1981 the Olau Hollandia was delivered to her owners, and four days later she started operating on Olau Line's Sheerness
Sheerness
Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....
(United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) — Vlissingen (the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
) route.
In the late 1980s TT-Line decided to replace the Olau Hollandia and Olau Britannia with two newbuilds, also called and . In preparation for delivery of the new Olau Hollandia, the old Olau Hollandia was sold to Nordström & Thulin, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in August 1989, to be delivered in October 1989.
Gotlandslinjen
In 1987 Nordström & Thulin had won the state concession to operate ferry services between the island of GotlandGotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
and the Swedish mainland for the years 1988-1997. N&T marketed their service as Gotlandslinjen, for whose traffic they bought the Olau Hollandia. Between October and December the Olau Hollandia was rebuilt at AG Weser Seebeckwerft and renamed MS Nord Gotlandia. After rebuilding she sailed to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
where the ship was displayed to the public. On 1 January 1990 the Nord Gotlandia began service with Gotlandslinjen, on routes from Visby
Visby
-See also:* Battle of Visby* Gotland University College* List of governors of Gotland County-External links:* - Visby*...
to Nynäshamn
Nynäshamn
- References :...
and Oskarshamn
Oskarshamn
Oskarshamn is a coastal city and the seat of Oskarshamn Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 17,258 inhabitants in 2010.-History:The location of Oskarshamn was known as Döderhultsvik since the Medieval age...
.
In July 1997 the Nord Gotlandia suffered a fire in the engine room. In the same year the Swedish government held a tender for the state concession for traffic to Gotland for the years 1998-2004, but this time N&T lost the concession to Destination Gotland
Destination Gotland
Destination Gotland is a Swedish ferry-line that run state-subsidiarised domestic ferries from Nynäshamn andOskarshamn to Visby on the island of Gotland. It is a wholly owned daughter company of Rederi AB Gotland...
. At the time N&T also owned 50% of EstLine
Estline
Estline was a Swedish-Estonian shipping company, owned jointly by Nordström & Thulin and the Estonian Government via Estonian Shipping Company . Estline was founded in 1990 and had a 10 year exclusive right to the passenger traffic between Stockholm, Sweden and Tallinn, Estonia...
, but the company decided not to transfer the Nord Gotlandia to EstLine. Instead she was sold to Eckerö Line
Eckerö Line
Eckerö Line is a Finnish shipping companies owned by the Åland-based Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö. Eckerö Line operates two ferries between Helsinki and Tallinn...
, Finland in December 1997, to be delivered in January 1998.
Eckerö Line
On 1 January 1998 the Nord Gotlandia left Visby for Turku Repair Yard, NaantaliNaantali
Naantali is a city in south-western Finland, known as one of the most important tourist centres of the country. The municipality has a population of , and is located in the region of Finland Proper, west of Turku....
, Finland, where she was taken over by Eckerö Line
Eckerö Line
Eckerö Line is a Finnish shipping companies owned by the Åland-based Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö. Eckerö Line operates two ferries between Helsinki and Tallinn...
the following day. After being rebuilt for her new service, the ship emerged as MS Nordlandia and was placed on Eckerö Line's Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
—Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
service on 10 February 1998.
The ship damaged one of her propellers when leaving Helsinki on 30 April 2003 and had to be docked in Naantali for five days for repairs. During a hard storm on 28 October 2006 she rammed the quay in Tallinn, resulting in a hole above the waterline. The damage was quickly repaired, and the ship was back in traffic on 1 November.
In January 2011, the ship was docked in Naantali
Naantali
Naantali is a city in south-western Finland, known as one of the most important tourist centres of the country. The municipality has a population of , and is located in the region of Finland Proper, west of Turku....
for eleven days (03.01.2011 - 14.01.2011).