Quote from The Motor Ship: “No funnel in the ordinary sense. Instead, there are two lightweight exhaust outlets on each side”.
“One of the most special and modernly equipped Scandinavian ferries has an equally unusual general arrangement. It can accommodate up to 90 cars on the main deck, while hoistable cardeck panels on the sides together have space for an additional 24 lighter vehicles. In addition, three car elevators can stow an additional total of 24 cars, bringing the total number to around 140 cars on the ferry with a passenger capacity of 1,100.”
This is how The Motor Ship wrote in May 1965 after Aalborg Shipyard (Aalborg Værft) had delivered hull number 152, PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE, to the Swedish shipping company Rederi AB Göteborg-Frederikshavn Linjen a couple of months earlier. The ferry was delivered in the midst of the golden age of car ferries and the emerging tax-free boom in the Kattegat region, with Stena Line and Sessan Linjen in fierce competition between Frederikshavn and Gothenburg.
PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE belonged to the latter, which used the brand “Sessan Linjen” as a reference to the fact that the company’s ferries were named after Swedish princesses. The technical development in ferry history has never since progressed as rapidly as it did in the 1960s.
PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE was thus the third newbuild from Aalborg Shipyard for Sessan Linjen in the decade, during which the Swedish shipping company subsequently managed to contract two more ferries at the shipyard.
A special ferry
The distinctive general arrangement was a further development from Aalborg Shipyard’s hull number 130, PRINSESSAN CHRISTINA from 1960, and an optimization of its nearly-sister ship 10 hull numbers later, PRINSESSAN MARGARETHA from 1963. Something The Motor Ship took note of was the placement of the engine casings, which at that time on Scandinavian ferries, built in Denmark or Germany, either consisted of a single casing over the centerline or one on each side outboard.
PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE had continued the funnel arrangement from the two preceding fleet sisters from the shipyard – something that, from The Motor Ship’s British perspective, with a far less innovative shipbuilding industry at home, was duly noted. The same applied to the location of the bridge:
“There is no funnel in the ordinary sense. Instead, there are two lightly constructed exhaust outlets on each side, ensuring an optimal aft view from the bridge. This is further ensured by elevating the bridge half a deck above the chart room to provide space for windows in its aft bulkhead”.
Three car elevators
“If the entire capacity of the ferry is needed for passenger cars, the three car elevators on two levels can be raised to their uppermost position, allowing the first three sets of four cars to be driven in. Afterward, the elevators are lowered to their next level, allowing an additional 12 cars to be driven in before the car elevators are lowered completely, aligning their tops with the main deck, and the rest of the loading can commence.”
The three unique car elevators described here were developed over three generations of new builds for Sessan Linjen by Aalborg Shipyard. The overall layout of the passenger decks with the equally unique interior, where the aft lounge extends all the way to the stern, was the second distinct feature shared by all three generations of ferries. However, this part was not noted by the British trade magazine, but what did catch their attention was the interior standard in the accommodation:
“Particularly impressive are the passenger facilities, reaching a new level in decoration and comfort. Towards the bow from the main corridor area, there is a 200-person lounge where coffee and light refreshments are served, with a view of an AGA television set built into the bulkhead. Aft, there is an area with 120 reserved seats. All bulkheads are wood-panelled, and the ceilings are covered with Dampas acoustic panels.”
Nohab-Polar diesels
Not surprisingly, PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE’s machinery was also thoroughly discussed. It consisted of two Nohab-Polar M67T 7-cylinder main engines, each with 2,800 horsepower, while the auxiliary machinery consisted of three 540 horsepower Polar four-stroke engines coupled to Thrige generators.
The Swedish engine brand Nohab-Polar is also a distinct characteristic of the three ferry generations built at Aalborg Shipyard for Sessan Linjen.
However, it was only with the last two vessels in the series, delivered in 1969 and 1971 respectively, that the machinery, consisting of Nohab-Polar engines, truly stood out with a main engine installation consisting of no less than eight four-stroke SF112VS-E engines. Engines that the Swedish engine manufacturer typically produced for usage in diesel-electric locomotives.
PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE Aalborg Værft # 152
Length: 91.3 m
Lenght b.p.: 82.6 m
Width: 15.5 m
Draft: 4.2 m
Dead weight: 800 t
Speed: 18.5 knots
(as built 1965, according to The Motor Ship)
Newly built car and passenger ferries did not stay for very long on their intended routes in 1960s Scandinavia, whether on domestic or international routes such as Frederikshavn – Gothenburg. It was in this context that Sessan Linjen ordered PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE from Aalborg Shipyard in 1963 for delivery in the first quarter of 1965.
Five years earlier, the route had received the first of a total of five new builds that Aalborg Shipyard constructed for Sessan Linjen in the sixties and early seventies. The first PRINSESSAN CHRISTINA was delivered in 1960 and left the route after the introduction of PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE, which thus sailed alongside its “almost-sister” PRINSESSAN MARGARETHA from 1962. The latter disappeared from the route shortly before the delivery of the first of the two third-generation ferries, PRINSESSAN CHRISTINA, in 1969.
Finland and Vietnam
The same fate befell PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE, which was sold to the Finnish company Oy Vaasa-Umeå AB in 1970. It left the Kattegat route in 1971 in favor of the Gulf of Bothnia, coinciding with the delivery of the last of the five Aalborg ferries, also named PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE.
The first PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE continued under three different Finnish ownerships with the name FENNO EXPRESS on routes in the Gulf of Bothnia until 1989. At that point, like many ferries of its generation in Scandinavia, the vessel left the cold north to continue operations in warmer climates. Initially, it operated between Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam as HANH PHUC. However, just a few years later, the ferry moved to the Middle East under the name JIMY, sailing from the Jordanian port of Aqaba for nearly five years. Subsequently, the now over 30-year-old ferry returned to Europe as ARTEMIS I, initially on a route between Italy, Greece, and Turkey, and later on a route between Italy, Albania, and Greece.
In 2001, the ferry was sold to a Bolivian company, which continued its operation between Italy and Albania, now under the name GABRIELLE. However, this marked the final chapter for the old PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE, as it was broken-up in 2004 on the Alang beach in India.
Durable design
PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE from 1965 thus reached the age of 39. However, it is the two third-generation Sessan ferries from Aalborg Shipyard, PRINSESSAN CHRISTINA and PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE from 1969 and 1971 respectively, that have made the most significant impact on ferry history.
PRINSESSAN CHRISTINA was sold as WIND SOLUTION by the Danish company Monjasa in 2018, after serving 15 years as an accommodation vessel in the offshore wind industry. The buyer was the major Greek ferry company Sea Jet, which intended to operate the ferry in the subsequent summer season under the name ‘AQUA SOLUTION’. Four years later, the now 53-year-old ferry, built in Aalborg, completed its final journey. This happened under the name RAVI, and its destination was the scrap beach at Alang in India.
PRINSESSAN DESIRÉE celebrated its 25th anniversary in April 2019 on Color Line’s route between Sandefjord and Strömstad under the name BOHUS. In the same year, the ferry was sold to an initially Madeira-based company and shortly thereafter transferred to a Panama-based company under the name IONIAN STAR. The ferry currently operates between Italy and Albania.
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