Danish and Finnish veteran

	ILLUSTRATION: HÅKAN SJÖSTRÖM

One of the most long-lived Nordic passenger vessels was the S/S “Silja II”, also known as the Finnish “Bore II” and the Danish “Dronning Maud”. She had just turned 60 when she was finally taken out of traffic to be broken up in Helsinki in 1967.
This was a vessel which had served two completely different trading areas: The southern Baltic and the North Sea under Danish flag and the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland under Finnish flag.
In addition to this she transported prisoners of war for the British, the French and the Russians just after World War I, in 1944 she served one year in the German transport service as the Almuth managed by Rud. Chr. Gribel in Stettin (Szczecin) and in 1946 she transported troops over the English Channel for the British.
Furthermore she was in all likelihood one of the first international cruise liners after World War II with Stockholm as her base.
In 1960 she was chartered to the shipping-company Silja for cruises from Stockholm via Helsinki to Leningrad (the former name of St Petersburg). However, after four summer seasons the service was unprofitable and consequently discontinued.

A cruise free of stress
However, during its time “Bore II”, which was the name of the vessel at that time, gave the passengers a chance to experience a cruise free of stress. The vessel departed from Stockholm on Fridays with a few hours’ ashore in Helsinki on Saturday and almost three days’ time to discover Leningrad before the return voyage.
Already in 1949 her owner at the time, Bore Steamship Company in Turku, introduced cruises on the Baltic Sea with the S/S “Nordstjernan”, a steamer with a long past under Swedish, German and Finnish flags. Bore, which was founded already in 1897, operated cruise liners for more than thirty years, even though the company today is a pure cargo carrier.
Despite its variegated past, the vessel was a liner during most of its long life. She was built in 1906 as “Dronning Maud” for Det Forenede Dampskibs Selskab (The D.F.D.S. Steamship Company) at Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen. Both before and after World War I, she sailed the line Stettin– Copenhagen/Frederikshavn–Christiania (Oslo).
While under Danish flag she served mostly on the run Copenhagen–Oslo, on Danish domestic routes and between Esbjerg–Harwich up to August 1946, when she was sold to Turku. Finland had lost several of its best passenger vessels to the Soviet Union as war reparations deliveries. The “Dronning Maud” was bought in order to be rebuilt and under the name of “Bore II” sail between Helsinki and Turku respectively to Stockholm as part of Bore and De samseglande rederierna (The Joint Lines, at present Silja Line). At the beginning she had to be content with one single original funnel, although Bore’s passengers vessels traditionally had two funnels. In 1953 the flaw was corrected and a new “false” funnel was fitted.

Art Noveau music lounge
The “Bore II” was a vessel of class with mirrors and high-grade wood in first class and a smoking lounge and more Spartan facilities in tourist class. There was a small Art Noveau music lounge and the promenade decks were spacious.
In May 1965, after the Leningrad-cruises, “Bore II” was chartered and later sold to The Finland Steamship Company Limited, where she was given the name “Silja II”. For the last summer seasons she was deployed together with the S/S “Wellamo” on the Helsinki–Travemünde run with excursions to Tallinn. When the Christmas trade between Helsinki and Stockholm faced unexpected problems, “Silja II” was taken into service for a few weeks when she was allowed to take back her old name, “Bore II”.
But in the autumn 1966 she was laid up at Jätkäsaari in the Western Harbour in Helsinki, side by side with The Finland Steamship Company’s passenger steamers Ariadne and Wellamo, all three of them waiting for the cutting blowtorches.

//Thure Malmberg

Back to SSG 11, December 20

Latest update 18-10-2006 8:49

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