MS Rigel III

SF Line begun planning for a new larger ferry for the Viking Line traffic between South-West Finland and Sweden in the mid-1970s. The main person in charge of the design of the new ship was SF Line's founder and CEO Gunnar Eklund, with his son Nils-Erik Eklund and the company's technical inspector Kaj Jansson participating in the design process. Experiences from SF Line's previous new buildings — particularly of 1973 — heavily influenced the design of the new vessel, which was drawn with large car-decks. However, the new vessel was planned to be twice as large in terms of gross register tonnage as Aurella, and she was to have twice as many cabins. SF Line's new ship was also given large conference facilities by the day's standards, capable of hosting 80 people. She was launched from drydock on 24 November 1978 and christened MS Turella by Margareta Lundqvist, the widow of the major SF Line shareholder Fraenk Lundqvist. On 18 January 1979, SF Line ordered a sister ship for the Turella from Wärtsilä, which eventually entered service in 1980 as . The construction of the Turella was completed on 4 June 1980 and she was delivered to SF Line on the same date, 11 days earlier than agreed. == History ==

1979–1987: Viking Line service Immediately following delivery Turella entered service on Viking Line's Turku–Mariehamn–Stockholm route, sailing parallel with Rederi AB Slite's slightly larger newbuilding that entered service on 14 June 1979. Turella remained on the Turku–Stockholm service until 2 June 1980, when she was transferred to the shorter and more freight-intensive Naantali–Mariehamn–Kapellskär route following the delivery of Rederi Ab Sally's new —that was even larger than Turella or Diana II—for the Turku service. On the Naantali–Kapellskär service Turella replaced the ageing and initially sailed parallel to her brand-new sistership . For the summer season of 1981 Rosella and Diana II switched routes, and from that year onwards Turella again had Diana II as her routemate. After rebuilding at Cityvarvet, Gothenburg, the Turella re-emerged as MS Stena Nordica (a name carried by many Stena Line ships over the years). Stena Nordica was placed a route connecting Gothenburg to Fredrikshavn in Denmark and Moss in Norway. She also occasionally served on the Gothenburg–Kiel route when the ships normally sailing that route were docked. In 1996, Stena Nordica was rebuilt at Öresundsvarvet, Landskrona, Sweden, transferred to the fleet of Stena's subsidiary Lion Ferry and renamed MS Lion King. During the next 1½ years she sailed on routes Halmstad (Sweden) – Grenå (Denmark) and Karlskrona (Sweden) – Gdynia (Poland). In 2004, the new MS Victoria I replaced Fantaasia on the Tallinn–Stockholm route, and from the start of April of the same year Fantaasia opened a new Helsinki–Tallinn–St. Petersburg route for Tallink. 2005–2009: charters and Kystlink service Following the collapse of the St. Petersburg traffic, the Fantaasia was swiftly chartered to Algérie Ferries for a duration of nine months, during which she sailed between France and Algeria. After the end of the charter she spent five months laid up in Tallinn until she was placed on Tallink's new Riga–Stockholm route in April 2006. for three months (with an option for three additional months) from October 2007 onwards to replace their MS Pride of Telemark that was out of service following an accident when the ship rammed the breakwater at Hirtshals, Denmark. Before entering service for Kystlink, Fantaasia was docked at Cityvarvet, Gothenburg. On 15 November, the Swedish Maritime Authority Sjöfartsinspektionen deemed the ship unsafe and prohibited it from leaving Cityvarvet until 18 faults found during the inspection were fixed. Twelve of the faults were considered severe, including several permanently open watertight doors, a non-functional loudspeaker system, blocked emergency exists and non-functional winches used for lowering lifeboats. According to Tallink, the inspection was made while refitting of the ship was still in process, which they cited as the reason why several onboard systems were turned off-line and normal safety procedures were not observed. On 11 December, the ship entered service with Kystlink on its Langesund–Hirtshals and Langesund–Strömstad routes. ==References==