Stena Scandinavica in Kiel, 22 May 2011

Stena Scandinavica

IMO 9235517
Built 2003, Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan, South Korea
Tonnage 55 050 GT
Length 241,06 m
Width 29,90 m
Draught 6,30 m
1 300 passengers
1 040 berths
300 cars
4 220 lane metres
4 MAN diesels, combined 25 920 kW
2 propellers
3 bow thrusters
Speed 22,5 knots

The histories of Stena Line ships tend to be confusing as the company uses route-specific names, with new ships on any given route inheriting the names of the old ships on the same route.

The current Stena Scandinavica is the fourth ship to bear that name. She was built in 2003 as the Stena Britannica II for the Harwich-Hoek van Holland service. Despite the number in her name she was, in fact, the fourth Stena Britannica. The II was dropped from her name during the same year and she became simply Stena Britannica. (Later the same year a sister ship was delivered, but instead of joining the Stena Britannica on the Harwich-Hoek service she went to the Dublin-Holyhead service as the Stena Adventurer).

In early 2007 the Stena Britannica was rebuilt at Lloyd's Werft in Bremerhaven, where a 30-meter midsection was installed. Following the lengthening she returned to the Harwich-Hook service. By this time two new 63 000 GT ships were under construction for Stena Line, and in late 2007 Stena made public the decision that the new ships would be placed on the Hoek-Harwich route on delivery in 2010.

In preparation for the delivery of the new Stena Britannica (V), the Stena Britannica (IV) was renamed Britannica in September 2010. A month later the Britannica was withdrawn from the Hoek-Harwich route and sailed to Gdynia in Poland where she was rebuilt in the Stena Scandinavica (IV). In April 2011 she entered service on the Gothenburg-Kiel route. (I told you this would be confusing).

The photographs below show the Stena Scandinavica departing Kiel on the evening of 22 May 2011. As you can see the weather was far from ideal for photography, so I shall try to balance quality with quantity. Click on the individual images to view full size.

Reversing away from the Schwedenkai terminal. The Kiel Fjord is so narrow towards the city that ships as long as the Stena Scandinavica have to reverse quite a long way when in- or outbound.

Turning in front of the HDW Kiel shipyard.

The 2007 lengthening did not exactly improve the looks of this ship. The rebuild from Stena Britannica to Stena Scandinavica further damaged her looks with the addition of new cabins midship.

The refit into Stena Scandinavica also gave the ship the current Stena Line livery, replacing the older simple one without wavy lines towards the aft and much smaller company name texts. Refreshingly, the company have retained the same typeface for ship name texts since the late 1960s.

Interestingly, the current Stena Scandinavica carries less passengers than her predecessor. For the past decades the general trend on the Baltic has been for ships to carry more passengers (and often less freight) than the previous generation.

Making good time (tm) towards Gothenburg.