Earlier in the year 2013, I had been sent as a reporter to the Daewoo shipyard in South Korea to cover the naming of MÆRSK MC-KINNEY MØLLER – the first ship in Maersk Line’s ULCC’s (Ultra Large Container Carriers) series, often also referred to as the Triple-E’s (MK I).
The series’ ships (the MK I’s) have prefixes consisting of common Danish names beginning with M, with the exception of its first unit, which was named after shipowner Arnold Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller, who had passed away the previous year at the age of 98.
On 25 August, MÆRSK MC-KINNEY MØLLER made her first call in Aarhus during her maiden voyage from South Korea/China via Suez/Mediterranean to Northern Europe with a turnaround in Aarhus – Denmark’s only deepsea container port.
Hundreds of people had gathered at the port on the beautiful late summer evening to see the ship, which was then the world’s largest container vessel, arrive. I had been to Zealand myself during the day and therefore arrived the same evening with the fast ferry but managed just as urgently to get out and find a good photo spot after we had passed MÆRSK MC-KINNEY MØLLER in the Bay of Aarhus on board MAX MOLS.
In the background FRS’s KATTEGAT (the former MAREN MOLS) departs for Kalundborg. Barely two months later, KATTEGAT left Denmark and was the following year deployed between Algeciras and Tangier. I have since visited the Triple-E ships several times during their weekly turnarounds in Aarhus.
About this entry: A handful of selected photos from my archive. I pick out photos that are older than 10 years and tell the story behind. Something that evokes fond memories of travel and the ship friends I travelled with.
KRALJICA MIRA in Ancona from a Southern Europe trip in June 2004. We were a group of friends from Denmark and the UK travelling together. For me, it was an opportunity to experience a number of Scandinavian ferries in the final stages of their operational lives. Specifically, some ferries I hadn’t had the chance to sail on before they – as was normal at the time – headed south to Italian or Greek waters. This included, for example, HAMMERSHUS, delivered in 1965 to Dampskibsselskabet på Bornholm af 1866. When I first visited Bornholm on a school trip in 7th grade in 1984, I sailed on the beautiful night ferries, delivered from Aalborg Shipyard in 1978/79, from Kvæsthusbroen in Copenhagen. When I visited Bornholm for the second time as a young adult, HAMMERSHUS had already headed out on to its final stage of its operational life in Southern Europe.
Therefore, it was the first time I saw ex. HAMMERSHUS when we arrived in Ancona on June 28, 2004. That same evening, we were to sail on the ferry, now called KRALJICA MIRA, to Zadar in Croatia. I remember that the lounge areas seemed to have been significantly changed from the photos, I have seen, which was a bit disappointing. However, our cabin remained unchanged right down to the curtain in front of the porthole, which we left open throughout the night while crossing the calm and mirror-like Adriatic Sea. I believe that was the first and only time I have experienced that on a ferry.
Just before the trip in June 2004, I had bought my first real DSLR camera, a Canon EOS 10D, which I used to take this photo of KRALJICA MIRA in Ancona’s beautiful old harbour. It was at the last moment, I sailed on ex. HAMMERSHUS; just seven months later, the ferry arrived at the beach in Alang, India.
It’s almost 20 years ago; CROWN OF SCANDINAVIA dressed overall at the quay during the official inauguration of the new DFDS terminal in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn on September 6, 2004.
A historic day in both DFDS’ and Copenhagen’s history. The Oslo ferries had been a constant part of the inner city setting near Kvæsthusbroen for 30 years, but urban development made it increasingly difficult to ensure proper logistics during arrivals, simultaneously with major construction projects in the area being decided at that period.
I was there as a press accredited reporter for the inauguration, which had HRH Princess Alexandra as the guest of honour. After the event, I went over to the reception at the law firm Plesner in the neighbouring 17-story building, where I asked if I could go up to their roof to take an arial photo of the new DFDS Terminal, which I was allowed to do.
10 years earlier, I was a passenger on the CROWN OF SCANDINAVIA’s first commercial crossing from Copenhagen to Oslo. The ferry was not contracted by DFDS but taken over at an almost finished stage. I will never forget the yard number, 373 from the Brodogradiliste shipyard, on the newbuilding, which was original supposed to have been named after the world-famous German author Thomas Mann. The ticket I bought at DFDS’ former physical office at the harbour in Aarhus had “NB373” written on it instead of the ship name.
This year, CROWN OF SCANDINAVIA, now named CROWN SEAWAYS, turns 30. Everything indicates that both CROWN SEAWAYS and the route-sister PEARL SEAWAYS will continue between Copenhagen and Oslo for the rest of the decade.
In the background of the scene, you can also see the newbuilding ALBERT MÆRSK, which was presented to the public at Langelinie on the same day. ALBERT MÆRSK had recently been delivered from Odense Staalskibsværft to Maersk Line, with the yard number 190, from the now long-gone shipyard.
My first digital camera, a Nikon E995, was pushed to the limit by the distance and the complicated lighting conditions that day on the outermost pier in Frederikshavn. Me and a friend had driven to Frederikshavn to see SPIR arrive from Suez at the end of January in 2003. That was way before you could follow a position of a ship via an AIS app, so we must have had intelligence from other sources – I don’t remember which – who said that we should be out on the outer pier at exactly that time. And I don’t remember that we waited very long on that probably quite cool January morning. The time of day is revealed by the position of the sun, partially hidden behind the cloud cover over Kattegat.
It was the ferry’s first call in Europe for more than 10 years that we were to experience. SPIR’s journey to Frederikshavn had started in Sydney around Christmas time the year before. Here the ferry as SPIRIT OF TASMANIA had been laid up for a few months after being sold to a Norwegian company by the local government in Tasmania, which had used the ferry between Devonport and Melbourne. That it was a return to Europe was due to the fact that SPIRIT OF TASMANIA was originally built in Germany as PETER PAN for (German) TT-Line’s route between Travemünde and Trelleborg.
The aim of the call in Frederikshavn was a docking and a major conversion, prior to the deployment on Fjord Line’s route between Bergen/Haugesund/Egersund and Hanstholm under the name FJORD NORWAY. The premiere tour for FJORD NORWAY took place about two months later. Here, too, we managed to be present during the first arrival in Bergen, but that is a completely other story.
16 June 2003 in Esbjerg. DFDS’ ro/pax ferry DANA GLORIA arrive from its last trip from Harwich, while the replacement DANA SIRENA lies in the background and is being set up for deployment the following day. DFDS has a fantastic history as a passenger shipping company. That is why the shipping company also previously preferred to refer to its ferries as passenger ships.
However, that reference began to become increasingly difficult to defend in the period after the end of duty-free sales within the EU. This meant that the ro/pax ferries also started to find their way into DFDS’ fleet, even on the probably most iconic route between Esbjerg and Harwich. Both suffixes, “Gloria” and “Sirena”, invariably lead a nostalgic’s thoughts to other and far more beautiful ships in DFDS’ historic fleet.
I don’t remember what I thought about on the quay in Esbjerg almost 20 years ago, but I was probably a bit sceptical. However, in fairness I will admit that DFDS later got the DANA SIRENA to work well on the route. I also gradually learned to appreciate at least some of the “new” ro/pax ferries. DANA SIRENA was one of those with DFDS’ usual high standard, and I made quite a few trips across the North Sea until the iconic passenger route closed on 29 September 2014.
DANA GLORIA was moved to DFDS’ operation in the Baltic Sea, where the ship unfortunately was destroyed be a fire under the name LISCO GLORIA on 9 October 2010. However, a professional effort from both the ship’s crew and rescue teams from shore meant that everyone escaped with their lives. Only three of the 204 passengers had to go to hospital for examination for smoke poisoning.
Note: I’m not a particularly good maritime historian, so when I pick a photo out of my archive and write about it, I always rely on www.faktaomfartyg.se for the dates and historical facts. Thank you Micke Asklander for being our collective ferry memory.
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