Finnjet

**Finnjet**
Ship data
flag	Finland Bahamas;
other ship names	Da Vinci; Kingdom;
Ship type	ferry
home port	Mariehamn ; Nassau
Shipyard	Oy Wärtsilä Ab , Helsinki
baptism	April 28, 1977
Launch	March 28, 1976
takeover	April 28, 1977
Commissioning	May 13, 1977
Decommissioning	September 19, 2005
Whereabouts	scrapped in September 2008
Ship dimensions and crew
length	215 m ( Lüa )
width	25 m
measurement	32,975 GT
Machine system
machine	2 Pratt & Whitney gas turbines
Machine ; performance	55,000 kW (74,779 hp)
Top ; speed	33 kn (61 km / h)
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers	1,686
Pax cabins	565
Berths for passengers	1,550
Vehicle capacity	400 cars
Others
Registration ; numbers	IMO no. 7359632

The Finnjet was a gas turbine ship that last operated on the Baltic Sea between Rostock and Saint Petersburg until September 2005 . She had a reinforced hull and a corresponding propulsion system (highest Finnish-Swedish ice class 1A Super ). Designed by the Finnish shipping company Finnlines for the service between Germany and Finland , her career began in 1977. In 1986 the ship sailed for the Finnjet Line . Due to multiple changes in ownership, Finnjet switched to the Silja Oy Ab fleet in 1987 . With a maximum speed of 33 knots (almost 61 km / h ), it was the fastest conventional ferry in the world.

The in Wärtsilä - shipyard in Helsinki completed when it was offered 1,686 passengers and nearly 400 car space. 565 cabins with 1550 beds were available. The ship was 215 meters long, 25 meters wide and had a tonnage of 32,975 GT .

On the route from Rostock to St. Petersburg, which will later be used, Finnjet needed 36 hours for the crossing with a stopover in Tallinn .

history

The Finnjet was originally used on the Travemünde - Helsinki route from 1977 to 1997 . Thanks to the high speed, the journey time was halved compared to its predecessor ships to 22 hours. The ship had a built-in interchangeable container system with which the loading and port lay times were reduced to two hours. This made it possible to achieve a scheduled round trip between Travemünde and Helsinki in a 48-hour cycle with just one ship. The expensive drive proved to be uneconomical, especially in winter, which is why diesel engines were installed in addition to the gas turbines in Amsterdam in 1981 , which should also make the slower winter drives more profitable.

By the opening of the " Iron Curtain " were in Finland Short cruises to the Estonian capital Tallinn popular, which in 1997 a change in the Finnjet led -Route: goods is in summer more tourists was on the fast link between Germany and Finland, as from 1997 in winter Helsinki – Tallinn served.

From June 1999 in Germany the port of Rostock was called instead of Travemünde and Tallinn was added to the timetable as a stopover . Due to the abolition of the regulations for duty-free shopping on routes within the EU , a fundamentally changed market situation ( e.g. due to new competition , but also due to the shifting of travel routes to low-cost airlines ) and rising fuel costs, the route became unprofitable and the new, replaced slower connections to the Baltic States and Russia .

The liner service on the Baltic Sea was discontinued by Silja Line in September 2005 due to unsatisfactory operating results and financial difficulties of the parent company.

The Finnjet in Louisiana

In connection with Hurricane Katrina , the Finnjet was finally rented from Louisiana State University in Shreveport. It was moored on a pier in the port of Baton Rouge , Louisiana , in the Mississippi River between October 2005 and June 2006 and was used as emergency shelter for the medical school . SeaContainers sold its shares in Silja Line to the Estonian Tallink Group in June 2006 , but kept some ships from the Silja fleet in order to sell them separately; including the Finnjet .

The end

The Finnjet was sold to the Dutch shipping company Club Cruise at the end of December 2007 for around 11 million US dollars and was renamed Da Vinci on January 16, 2008 . The Da Vinci left Freeport on January 25, 2008 for Genoa . After a stopover in Gibraltar from February 7th to 11th , she arrived in Genoa on February 18th. The plan to convert it into a cruise ship was no longer implemented due to financial difficulties of the Dutch shipping company. A resale for use as a casino ship also failed.

In early May 2008, it was announced that the Da Vinci was sold for $ 9.85 million to be scrapped to a company in India .

The Turkish ship broker Maritim Services & Trading Ltd., registered in the Marshall Islands . (MSK) announced that two of its customers had submitted offers and were negotiating them with the Indian company. One offer called for the ship to sail on the Red Sea between Jeddah in Saudi Arabia , Suez in Egypt and Port Sudan . The other offer was for a deployment in the Mediterranean between Ghazaouet in western Algeria and Sète in France .

The ship left Genoa on May 6 for Jeddah . On May 24, 2008, US Shipbrokers announced that the Da Vinci had been renamed the Kingdom (under the Panamanian flag) and that it was leaving Jeddah for India on May 25. On May 27, the kingdom outside Jeddah was halted due to further negotiations. A group of investors from Turku tried to acquire the ship and bring it to Finland. Possible donations and investment funds for the future of Finnjet were collected on an unofficial fansite . On the side, seafarers agreed to transfer the Finnjet to Finland without payment.

The Kingdom reached on 13 June 2008 Indian Alang , where the ship was set on the beach on June 19.

According to the Indian scrappers, the ship could still have been pulled back into deeper waters from its current position without damage. Since the dismantling of the interior fittings had not yet started either, efforts were still being made, mainly in Finland, to preserve the Finnjet for posterity.

Specifically, the “Pro Finnjet ” initiative was in Turku. The ship was to remain there in the port with a combined usage concept. The plan was to use a large part of the cubicles as student dormitories . At the time, there was much speculation as to the current condition of the ship. In order to create clarity in this regard and also to investigate the possibilities of a refloating, a three-person team of experts was sent to India on August 21, 2008.

On September 12th, 2008 "Pro Finnjet " announced that all efforts to save the ship had failed. Demolition work on the hull began that same day in India.