Fjord Line

Fjord Line was founded in 1993 to sail ferryservices between the south of Norway and other European countries. They started sailing in june of that year with a ship named Bergen, a 16.500 tonner built at the Fosen Mekaniker Verksted in Rissa, Norway. The ship sailed a service between Bergen and Stavanger in Norway to Hanstholm in Denmark. Also, she was used for the service between Hanstholm and Egernsund in Norway. In 1998, the company expanded when they took over the line between Bergen, Stavanger and Newcastle in northern England from the Color Line. Together with the line, they also took over the ship Color Viking and renamed her Jupiter. Because of this expansion, Fjord Line became the only ferrycompany that offered sailings between southern Norway and Europe and of course that was also what the company was started up for in the first place. Next to the passengerferries, the company also offered sailing on freightferries and business grew rapidly. In 2003, Fjord Line thus expanded the service to Denmark when they bought their largest ship to date, the 31.000-ton Spirit Of Tasmania and the Bergen was sold to DFDS as their Duchess of Scandinavia. The Spirit Of Tasmania had sailed a service within the TT-Line Group between Melbourne and Devenport since 1993 under the banner of Transport Tasmania. After Fjord Line purchased her, she recieved the name Fjord Norway and started sailing the service between Bergen and Hanstholm. Two years later, the growing demand for the England line demanded a change and Fjord Norway took over the service from the smallish 1974-built Jupiter. 

DFDS had taken over the Fjord Norway and the England route in 2006, re-naming the ship Princess Of Norway. For DFDS, the route also was not a success and without change of name, the ship was placed at the Newcastle to IJmuiden route from may 2007 onwards. She is still there, now sailing as Princess Seaways.

But not all was well and because competition had grown over the years, the England line was in difficulties. The larger ferry did not attract enough passengers and because of that, the route and ships Fjord Norway and Jupiter had to be sold off to avoid bankrupcy in 2006. The route became a part of the network from DFDS and for this, they used the Fjord Norway under the altered name of Princess Of Norway. Jupiter was first chartered to the Norwegian oilcompany Statoil as a accomodationship in Melkoya Island near Hammerfest, before being sold to Royal Group of Hong Kong to sail ferryservices in East Asia. 

In 2007, Fjord Line was bought by Bergen Nordhordland Rutelag, a ferrycompany based in Osteroy, Norway. This company had been formed in 1974 as a merger between older shippingcompanies, the oldest dating back to 1880. Under the new owners, Fjord Line was able to grow again, going back to their basis route between Bergen, Stavanger and Denmark. In 2008, Fjord Line and Master Ferries merged under the name of Fjord Line and from Master Ferries came also the Fjord Cat, a fast ferry that sailed between Hanstholm and the Norwegian port of Kristiansand. This ship now also has the doubtable honour to hold the Blue Ribband due to a single transatlantic voyage she made in 2006, faster then the liner United States. The record is not recognized by many, because she is not a regular transatlantic passengerliner and she only made the voyage when she was bought by Master Ferries from T&T Ferries in Trinidad and Tobago. There were no paying passenger aboard.

In 2005, Fjord Line had bought back the former Bergen from DFDS and she sailed her old route again under the name of Atlantic Traveller. In 2008, the ship was renamed Bergensfjord and slowly the companies losses were changing into positive results. Positive enough to order two new ferries for the Denmark route and they came into service as Stavangerfjord in 2013 and Bergensfjord in 2014. Because of this, the first Bergensfjord was renamed Oslofjord and modernized to keep up with her modern fleetmates. he started sailing a new service between Strömstad in Sweden and Sandefjord in Norway from june 2014 onwards. With four modern passengerferries and several freightlines, Fjordline is now a very reliable company offering many sailings to and from the southern part of Norway.

A ship that has been sailing for Fjord Line is placed elsewhere at the site

Fjord Norway (2003-2006) is placed under DFDS as Princess Seaways

For bookings, visit the website of Fjord Line.