MV Saga

In the late 1970s, Effoa and Rederi AB Svea, two of the owners of the Baltic Sea ferry operator Silja Line, made the decision to order two new, large car/passenger ferries for Silja Line's Helsinki–Stockholm service. The ships were designed to be much larger than the ships that were at the time sailing on the route (built in 1975) and they would be Silja Line's first genuine cruiseferries. During the 70s the French Dubegion-Normandie shipyard in Nantes had been Silja Line's shipyard of choice, with both previous generations of ferries for the Helsinki–Stockholm service built there. However, for the new ships, the decision was made to build them in Finland at Wärtsilä Turku shipyards, that was at the time building several large ferries for Silja's main rival Viking Line. Externally the new ships were quite typical ferries of the early 1980s, with large boxlike superstructures. An unusual feature on the ships was a two-deck high panorama window on the front of the superstructure, offering views over the ship's bow. On 21 October 1980, the second of Silja's new ships was launched at Wärtsilä's Perno shipyard. Subsequently, she was towed to Wärtsilä's Turku shipyard where the construction was finished. Due to this arrangement the ship was registered in Helsinki and not Stockholm, the usual homeport of Rederi AB Svea's ships. == Service history ==

1981–1991: Silvia Regina On 12 June 1981, the brand new Silvia Regina was set in Silja Line's Helsinki–Stockholm service, The ship carried Rederi AB Svea funnel colours for only a few months, as the company was absorbed into its parent company Johnson Line in the end of 1982. As a result, the Silvia Regina had received Johnson Line's blue/yellow funnel colours already before the refit. Soon after entering service a major design flaw was discovered in the ships. In order to maximise car carrying capacity, they had been designed with very wide bows that made the ships very difficult to control, especially in poor weather conditions. As a result, both ships were docked at Wärtsilä's Perno shipyard during the winter 1981–82 and rebuilt with new bows that were notably sleeker along the waterline. 1991–1994: Stena Britannica After the end of her service with Silja the Silvia Regina sailed from Stockholm to Bremerhaven, Germany where she was taken over by Stena Line on 2 June 1991, and subsequently rebuilt for her new service at Schichau Seebeckswerft AG. During docking the ship was renamed MS Stena Britannica, and on 19 June she entered service on Stena Line's Hook of Holland – Harwich service. 2020 onwards: Saga In March 2020, Stena Line announced that it would withdraw the vessel from the Oslo-Fredrikshavn route and terminate the route, citing lack of traffic and missing the important summer season due to the Coronavirus border closures as the main reason. She was renamed Saga and laid up in the port of Uddevalla for almost a year. On 16 June 2021, Saga left Sweden for two-month charter to Adria Ferries on their Ancona-Durrës route. In November 2021, Saga was reported bound for the Philippines, on charter to Bridgemans Services, after conversion to a floating hotel vessel. == References ==