Sally Cruise was a wholly owned subsidiary of Rederi Ab Sally

Rederi Ab Sally

Rederi Ab Sally was a Finnish shipping company founded in the 1937 by Algot Johansson. Originally a tanker operator, Sally became a dominant member of the Viking Line shipping consortium in the 1970s. The company met bad times in the 1980s and was bought by its rivals Effoa and Johnson Line in 1987...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 that operated cruise ship

Cruise ship

A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...

s on the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 between the years 1986 and 1992. It was merged into Silja Line

Silja Line

Silja Line is a Finnish cruiseferry brand operated by the Estonian ferry company AS Tallink Grupp, for car and passenger traffic between Finland and Sweden. The former company Silja Oy – today Tallink Silja Oy – is a subsidiary of Tallink Grupp, handling marketing and sales for Tallink and Silja...

 1992.

Company history

Rederi Ab Sally

Rederi Ab Sally

Rederi Ab Sally was a Finnish shipping company founded in the 1937 by Algot Johansson. Originally a tanker operator, Sally became a dominant member of the Viking Line shipping consortium in the 1970s. The company met bad times in the 1980s and was bought by its rivals Effoa and Johnson Line in 1987...

 had been, until the early 1980s, the dominant partner in the Viking Line

Viking Line

Viking Line is a Finnish shipping company that operates a fleet of ferries and cruiseferries between Finland, the Åland Islands, Sweden and Estonia. Viking Line shares are quoted on the Helsinki Stock Exchange...

 consortium. However, due to investing in unprofitable operations outside the Baltic Sea they started losing their foothold in Viking during the mid-80s when the other partners (SF Line

SF Line

SF Line was the name of the Finnish shipping company presently known as Viking Line. The company, originally named Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan, was one of three shipping companies that formed shipping marketing company Viking Line in 1966, the other two being Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen and Rederi AB Slite...

 and Rederi AB Slite

Rederi AB Slite

Rederi AB Slite was a Swedish shipping company, founded in 1947. The company was one of the three founding companies of Viking Line. Rederi AB Slite went bankrupt in 1993.-Early History:...

) took delivery of new tonnage that supplanted Sally's newest ships. In 1986 when Sally's MS Viking Saga was replaced by the new MS Olympia, the decision was made not to sell the Viking Saga but use her to start a new company, Sally Cruise, to operate short cruises out of Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

, Finland. At this time one-day cruises to nowhere were still a novel idea, the first ones had been made only the previous year by GTS Finnjet

GTS Finnjet

GTS Finnjet was a cruiseferry, built in 1977 by Wärtsilä Helsinki, Finland for Finnlines traffic between Finland and Germany. At the time of her delivery, Finnjet was the fastest, longest and largest car ferry in the world, and the only one powered by gas turbines...

.

After a refit the Viking Saga re-emerged as MS Sally Albatross, painted in an attractive white livery with dark and light blue bands running along her hull. Despite the Sally Albatross success her parent company's downward spiral continued, and in 1987 the company was sold to their main rivals Effoa

Effoa

Finland Steamship Company was a Finnish shipping company founded in 1883 by Captain Lars Krogius. In Finnish and Swedish The company was usually referred to simply as FÅA. In 1976, the company changed its name to Effoa, a phonetic spelling of the abbreviation FÅA.The company was a founding member...

 and Johnson Line

Johnson Line

Johnson Line was a Sweden-based shipping line founded in 1904 as a subsidiary of Rederi AB Nordstjernan. In 1982 Johnson Line absorbed Rederi AB Svea, another Rederi AB Nordstjernan -owned company, hence becoming a member of the Finnish-Swedish Silja Line consortium...

 (owners of Silja Line). The change of ownership meant additional investments made in Sally Cruise, and the Sally Albatross was rebuilt in 1988. However, disaster struck in 1990 when the Sally Albatross was burnt out while in drydock at Finnboda, Nacka

Nacka

Nacka is the municipal seat of Nacka Municipality and part of Stockholm urban area in Sweden. The municipality's name harks back to an 16th century industrial operation established by the Crown at Nacka farmstead where conditions for water mills are good...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

.

Sally Cruises quickly chartered MS Delfin Clipper from the short-lived Delfin Cruises and renamed her MS Sally Clipper to replace the burnt-out Sally Albatross. By the end of the year 1990 the salvageable parts of the burnt-out Sally Albatross were being used to build a new ship, codenamed Sally Eurocruiser. Before she was completed in 1992 Sally also chartered Sally Clippers sister ship MS Delfin Caravelle under the name Sally Caravelle in 1991.

In March 1992 the new MS Sally Albatross debuted for Sally Cruise. However, in order to cut costs her owners EffJohn (a merger between Rederi Ab Sally, Effoa and Johnson Line created in 1990) decided to terminate Sally Cruise as an independent company in September 1992, and the company was merged in Silja Line.

Fleet

• MS Sally Albatross (1986–1990, 1992)
• MS Sally Clipper (1990)
• MS Sally Caravelle (1991)

External links

• Sally Cruise at Fakta om Fartyg (in Swedish)