A floating casino

	PHOTO: JAN G RAUTAWAARA

If anyone has ever wondered how the Scandinavian-sounding name “Wasa Queen” might look in Chinese letters, just take a closer look at this fine picture of the vessel at full speed off Hong Kong, taken in January 2004.

Every ferry enthusiast will of course immediately recognise the vessel as one of Silja Line’s French-built sisters from the mid 1970s.

“Wasa Queen” was delivered in 1975 by Dubigeon–Normandie in Nantes as “Bore Star” for the Bore Company in Finland. She was put into Silja Line’s traffic, but during the winter season she also did cruises in West African waters.

Still in Silja Line’s colours, she was renamed “Silja Star” after a change of ownership in 1980, when Bore closed down its activities in passenger traffic. The ferry left Silja Line’s traffic in 1986, and thereafter she sailed in the Mediterranean for several years under different names.

She was bought back to the Silja sphere in 1991, and in 1992 she was renamed “Wasa Queen”. After a refit she entered service for Wasa Line on the Gulf of Bothnia. In 1996, she was transferred to Silja Line’s Helsinki (Helsingfors)–Tallinn service. She was back on the Gulf of Bothnia in 1999, but after Silja Line closed down this service at the end of 2000, the vessel was laid up and sold.

Today she is operated in the Far East by Star Cruises’ subsidiary Cruise Ferries. She was introduced to these waters in the autumn of 2001 and she made short cruises as a floating casino with Singapore as her base. It has been said that the owners earned the purchase price back in only a few weeks!

Later she was transferred to Hong Kong, where the day cruises continued. Originally she was intended for a ferry service between Hong Kong and China. She also sailed for a time in regular traffic between Hong Kong and Xiamen, but it was soon realised that this traffic would not become profitable.
The casino cruises from Hong Kong continued instead, and she is still employed in this role.
The vessel is reported to be manned by a Chinese crew with Scandinavian senior officers.