TALLINK

'Tallink' is an Estonian shipping company currently operating cruiseferries and ropax ships from Estonia to Finland, Estonia to Sweden, Latvia to Sweden and Finland to Germany, as well as high-speed crafts between Helsinki and Tallinn. They also own Silja Line, SeaWind Line and a part of SeaRail.

Contents

History

Early years

1993-2000

2000-2006

2006-present

Future

Controversies

Ignored man overboard

Employee abuse

Fleet

Current Fleet

Ships under construction

Former vessels

References

See also

External links

History

Early years

History of the company known today as Tallink can be traced back to the year 1965 when the Soviet Union-based Estonian Shipping Company (ESCO) started passenger traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn with M/S ''Vanemuine''. Regular around-the-year traffic was started in 1968 with M/S ''Tallinn'', which served on the route until she was replaced by the new M/S ''Georg Ots'' in 1980.

In May 1989 ESCO formed a new subsidiary, Laevandusühisettevôte Tallink, together with the Finnish Palkkiyhtymä Oy. In December of the same year ESCO and Palkkiyhtymä purchased M/S ''Scandinavian Sky'' from SeaEscape, and the ship began traffic on the Helsinki - Tallinn route in January 1990 as M/S ''Tallink''. Later in the same year the freighter M/S ''Transestonia'' joined M/S Tallink on the Helsinki - Tallinn route and Tallink was established as the name of the company as well as the main ship. At the same time ESCO still operated the Georg Ots in the same route, essentially competing with its own daughter company. This conflict was resolved in September 1991 when the Georg Ots was chartered to Tallink. In the early 90's passenger numbers on Helsinki - Tallinn traffic were steadily increasing, and during winters between 1992 and 1995 Tallink chartered M/S ''Saint Patrick II'' from Irish Ferries to increase capacity on the route.

1993-2000

Tallink became a fully Estonian-owned company in 1993 when Palkkiyhtymä sold its shares of both the Tallink company and M/S Tallink to ESCO. At this time other companies were establishing themselves on the lucrative Helsinki - Tallinn traffic, including the Estonian New Line, owned by the Tallinn-based Inreko. ESCO and Inreko saw no sense in competing with each other and in January 1994 Tallink and Inreko Laeva AS were merged into AS Ermine. Tallink remained the marketing name for the company's fleet. Later in the same year Inreko purchased M/S ''Nord Estonia'' from EstLine (a daughter company of ESCO and the Swedish Nordström & Thulin Ab), renamed her M/S ''Vana Tallinn'' and placed her in Helsinki - Tallinn traffic for Tallink. Inreko also brought with them two fast hydrofoils, H/S ''Liisa'' and H/S ''Laura'' which began serving under the Tallink Express brand. In 1994 Tallink also attempted traffic from Estonia to Germany for the first time, with two chartered ferries M/S ''Balanga Queen'' and M/S ''Ambassador II'' that were placed on the route Helsinki - Tallinn - Travemünde.
In September 1994 AS Ermine's operations were divided into two companies, one that took care of the traffic to Germany (which was soon closed down) and AS Hansatee which took the Helsinki - Tallinn traffic and the Tallink name. ESCO was clearly the dominant partner in Hansatee, controlling 45 % of the shares, whereas Inreko owned only 12,75 % (the remaining 42,25 % belonging to Ühispank, Estonia). In 1995 Hansatee brought the first large ferry into Helsinki - Tallinn traffic when they chartered M/S ''Mare Balticum'' from EstLine and renamed her M/S ''Meloodia''. Following various disputes between ESCO and Inreko (most notably about the charter price of M/S Vana Tallinn), Inreko sold their shares of AS Hansatee to ESCO in December 1996. At the same time Inreko sold the Tallink Express hydrofoils to Linda Line, Estonia, and begun operating the Vana Tallinn on Helsinki - Tallinn traffic under the name TH Ferries.
In 1997 a second large ferry was brought to Tallink's traffic when the company chartered M/S ''Normandy'' from Stena Line. To replace the lost hydrofoils, Hansatee purchased a new express catamaran in May 1997, which was named M/S ''Tallink Express''. At this time it was clear that two large ferries were needed for traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn, and when the Normandy's charter ended in December 1997 Tallink purchased M/S ''Lion King'' from Stena Line, which entered traffic in February 1998 as M/S ''Fantaasia''. In July of the same year Tallink purchased the freighter M/S ''Kapella'' which opened a line from Paldiski to Kappelskär, Tallink's first route to Sweden. In October the original M/S Tallink, which no longer conformed modern safety regulations, was sold. Two months later Hansatee purchased the their first fast ferry capable of carrying cars, HSC ''Tallink AutoExpress''.

2000-2006

By the year 2000 ESCO had become the sole owner of EstLine, and in December 2000 EstLine's two ferries M/S ''Regina Baltica'' and M/S ''Baltic Kristina'' were chartered to Hansatee, and the line between Tallinn and Stockholm began to be marketed as a part of Tallink. A few months earlier, in August 2000, Hansatee had ordered their first newbuild from the Finnish Aker Finnyards. In June 2001 Tallink purchased HSC ''Tallink AutoExpress 2'', while next month EstLine was declared bankrupt.
In 2002 AS Hansatee changed its name into AS Tallink Grupp, and in May of the same year the company took delivery of the brand new 2500-passenger cruiseferry M/S ''Romantika'', which was placed on Helsinki - Tallinn traffic. In November of the same year the classic M/S ''Georg Ots'' was sold to the government of Russia. In 2004 three news ships joined Tallink's fleet, HSC ''Tallink AutoExpress 3'' and ''4'' alongside M/S Romantika's sister M/S ''Victoria I'' which was placed on Tallinn - Stockholm route, replacing M/S ''Fantaasia'' which in turn started a new route from Helsinki to St. Petersburg via Tallinn. Unfortunately this route proved unprofitable and was terminated in January 2005. Later in 2005 Tallink ordered a sister ship of the to-be delived M/S ''Galaxy'' and a fast ropax ferry from Aker Finnyards as well as another ropax ferry from the Fincantieri yard in Italy. On December 9, 2005, Tallink was listed at Tallinn Stock Exchanges.

2006-present

In 2006, Tallink purchased the Baltic Sea operations of Superfast Ferries, opened a route between Riga and Stockholm (with M/S ''Fantaasia'', which was within a month replaced by M/S ''Regina Baltica''), took delivery of the new M/S ''Galaxy'' which replaced ''Romantika'' on the Tallinn–Helsinki route (M/S Romantika went to the Tallinn-Stockholm route). A few months later Tallink purchased rival Silja Line from Sea Containers Ltd. In October of the same year the company expressed interest in making an offer to operate ferries on the state-subsidiarised routes between Gotland and the Swedish mainland for the period between 2009 and 2015.
From the beginning of 2007 the former Superfast ships were moved under the Tallink brand and their route changed to Tallinn - Helsinki - Rostock. At the same time M/S Meloodia was chartered to Balearias, Spain for ten months. In April of the same year the company ordered a third Galaxy-class cruiseferry from Aker Yards.^[1]

Future

Tallink have promised to maintain the Silja Line brand in the future, although this promise has met with some scepticism in amongst shipping enthustiasts in the Nordic Countries. However, Silja Line is one of the best known shipping company brand in its traffic area, and it would seem unlikely that Tallink should abandon such a well-known brand.

Controversies

Ignored man overboard

In April 2006 Tallink's ferry M/S ''Regina Baltica'', en route from Tallinn to Stockholm, ignored when multiple passengers reported that a passenger had fallen overboard. The crew refused to stop the ship to search for the passenger and the 21 year-old Estonian male perished in the incident. Tallink later accepted no responsibility for the accident, emphasizing that none of the passengers confirmed actually seeing the man falling overboard or in the water.^[2]

Employee abuse

In October 2006, the board of Tallink held a meeting on board their ship M/S ''Silja Symphony''. During the night, the party got out of control and became headline news in Sweden, Estonia and Finland. Witnesses reported that the board members assaulted personnel, abused them verbally and threatened to fire the whole crew when they tried to calm them down. The company CEO Mr Enn Pant was even reported to have sexually harassed a male crew member.

Fleet

Current Fleet

In the most recent Tallink Silja Line brochure (spring 2007) and TallinkSilja website, the names of all ships include a "Tallink" -prefix. However their registered names remain as listed below.
:''See also Silja Line - Current fleet''

Ship	Type	Built	Entered service	Route	Tonnage	Notes
'M/S ''Galaxy'''	Cruiseferry	2006	2006	Tallinn—Helsinki	48915 GT	Will transfer to Silja Line in 2008
'M/S ''Kapella'''	Freighter	1974	1998	Paldiski—Kapellskär	7564 GT
'M/S ''Regal Star'''	Freighter	2000	2004	Paldiski—Kapellskär	15281 GRT
'M/S ''Regina Baltica'''	Cruiseferry	1980	2001	Riga—Stockholm	13878 GRT	Transferred from EstLine
'M/S ''Romantika'''	Cruiseferry	2002	2002	Tallinn—Mariehamn—Stockholm	39864 GT	First newbuild delivered to Tallink
'M/S ''Star'''	Fast ro-pax ferry	2007	2007	Tallinn—Helsinki	~30000 GT
'M/S ''Superfast VII'''	Fast ro-pax ferry	2001	2006	Tallinn—Helsinki—Rostock	30285 GT	Bought from Superfast Ferries
'M/S ''Superfast VIII'''	Fast ro-pax ferry	2001	2006	Tallinn—Helsinki—Rostock	30285 GT	Bought from Superfast Ferries
'M/S ''Superfast IX'''	Fast ro-pax ferry	2001	2006	Tallinn—Helsinki—Rostock	30285 GT	Bought from Superfast Ferries
'HSC ''Tallink AutoExpress 2'''	High speed vessel	1997	2001	Tallinn—Helsinki	5307 GRT
'M/S ''Vana Tallinn'''	Ferry	1974	1994	Riga—Stockholm	10002 GRT
'M/S ''Victoria I'''	Cruiseferry	2004	2004	Tallinn—Mariehamn—Stockholm	40975 GT

Ships under construction

Ship	Planned delivery date	Shipyard	Planned route	Projected tonnage
'''NB 8367'''	February 2008	Fincantieri, Trieste	Helsinki—Tallinn	36400 GT
'''NB 1361'''	summer 2008	Aker Yards, Helsinki	Helsinki—Tallinn	48900 GT
'''NB 1365''' (''Cruise 5'')	spring 2009	Aker Yards, Rauma	Unknown	48900 GT

Former vessels

Not a complete list.

Ship	Built	Years in service	Tonnage	Current status
'M/S ''Tallink'''	1972	1989-1996	10341 GRT	scrapped in Alang, India, 2005
'M/S ''Transestonia'''	1972	1990-2000	2386 GRT	scrapped in Alang, India, 2006
'M/S ''Saint Patric II'''	1973	1992-1995	7984 GRT	now M/S ''C.T.M.A. Vacancier'', owned by the government of Canada, on line between Montreal and Cap-aux-Meules
'M/S ''Georg Ots'''	1980	1993-2000	12549 GRT	now owned by the government of Russia, on line between St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad
'M/S ''Corbiere''' 'M/S ''Apollo'''	1970	1994 1998	4238 GRT	now M/S ''Apollo'', owned by Labrador Marine Inc, on line between St. Barbe and Blanc Sablon
'M/S ''Balanga Queen'''	1968	1994	10448 GRT	now M/S ''Discovery Sun'' for Discovery Cruise Line
'M/S ''Ambassador II'''	1970	1994	7993 GRT	now owned by International Shipping Partners
'M/S ''Meloodia'''	1979	1996-2006	17955 GT	currently under charter to Balerias
'M/S ''Tallink Express I'''	1989	1997-2001	430 GRT	now M/S ''Panormitis'' for A.N.E.S. High Speed Ltd.
'M/S ''Normandy'''	1981	1997	17043 GRT	now owned by Irish Continental Group, on line between Rosslare and Cherbourg/Roscoff
'M/S ''Fantaasia'''	1979	1997-2006	10604 GT	currently under charter to Algerie Ferries
'M/S ''Tallink Autoexpress'''	1996	1999-2006	5308 GRT	now HSC ''Alcantara Dos'', owned by Acciona Trasmediterranea
'M/S ''Baltic Kristina'''	1973	2001-2002	12281 GRT	now M/S ''Atlas I''
'M/S ''Tallink Autoexpress 3'''	1997	2004-2007	3971 GRT	now HSC ''Queen Nefertiti'' for Arab Bridge Maritime Co
'M/S ''Tallink Autoexpress 4'''	1996	2004-2007	3971 GRT	now HSC ''Speedrunner II'' for Aegean Speed Lines

References

1. Aker Yards press release 11. 4. 2007, retrieved 23. 8. 2007
2. Expressen: ''Tallinks vd: "Det är kaptenen som tar besluten"'', retrieved 23. 8. 2007

See also

★ Viking Line - rival operator

External links

★ Official site

★ Tallink at Fakta om Fartyg (Swedish)

★ History of ESCO, EstLine and Tallink by Joni Huopana (Finnish)