The 1988 built ferry AMORELLA operated by the ferry company Viking Line between the Finnish western port city of Turku and Swedish capital Stockholm is currently aground south of the port of Långnäs in the Åland Islands.
In a tweet, the local coastguard division stated that AMORELLA went aground south of Långnäs. The ship pushed herself to the shore of the island to stabilise the situation. Several units were alerted and several ships were on site in preparation for the evacuation of which from 207 passengers and 74 crew aboard no injuries were reported.
The coastguard was alerted of the incident just before 1300 hrs Finnish time. Authorities are now investigating why the ferry ran aground.
AMORELLA was ordered in 1986 by SF Line, one of the partners in Viking Line consortium. Although Brodosplit outbid other shipyards, the Finnish State offered to subsidise construction of the ship if she was built at a Finnish shipyard. This was a common practice in the 80’s to bring more jobs to Finland, but this time SF Line declined and had the ship built in Croatia. The original planned delivery date was in March 1988, but due to delays in construction she was not completed until September, which meant SF Line was forced to operate the lucrative summer season with old tonnage as yard number 356 by Split Shipyard at Split.
This is the 3rd time she ran aground – first one was in 1993 when she ran aground near Stockholm. She was able to come off by her own power, but her bottom was damaged in the process; she started taking in water and diesel oil leaked from a damaged fuel tank. The ship continued to Stockholm, and after unloading passengers and cargo she sailed to Turku Repair Yard, Naantali for repairs. Then on 14th December, 2013 she lost her steering due to a blackout and ran aground with about 2,000 passengers on board.The only hull damage that occurred was a breach into a bow ballast tank. Therefore, no environmental damage occurred and there was no leak into the vessel. After being stuck for about twelve hours she was able continue her journey to Mariehamn under her own power.
She can carry 2,420 passengers and 450 cars with 34,384 GRT homeported at Mariehamn.
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Published – Monday 21st September, 2020.