Sally Line UK was a British ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 operator on the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

 and North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

.

History

Sally Line was founded in 1981 by Michael Kingshott as a subsidiary of the 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...

-based 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...

, and initially marketed as Sally Viking Line, with a livery that was nearly identical with that of 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...

, a 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...

 ferry consortium that Sally was a member of. The naming scheme of Sally's Viking Line ships was also carried over to the UK operations, with ships named either The Viking or Viking [number]. In 1987 Rederi Ab Sally, including the Sally Line UK operations, was sold to 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...

, Sally's Baltic Sea rivals and owners of 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...

. As a result of the change of ownership, a new Sally Line UK livery was adopted in 1988 and the company's ships were renamed with a Sally-prefix. Sally Line UK operated the Holyman Sally Line service from Port of Ramsgate to Ostend from 1993 to 1998, but this became no longer viable Holyman

Holyman

Holyman was an Australian company that operated cargo ships and ferries in Australia and other countries worldwide. The company had three divisions; Domestic shipping and transport services, Ferries and Bulk commodity handling....

 became partners with Hoverspeed

Hoverspeed

Hoverspeed, formed in 1981 by the merger of Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd, was a ferry company that operated on the English Channel from 1981 until 2005....

 and moved the service to Dover. In the mid-90s Sally Line adapted a new livery and a logo similar to that of Silja Line, but this proved short-lived as the company ceased operations in 1998.

Fleet

Ship	Years in service	Tonnage	Notes	Status as of 2008
	1981—1983			Since 1988 MS Boughaz for COMARIT Comarit Comarit is a Moroccan ferry operator. The company operates ferries connecting Morocco with Spain and France.-History:Comarit was formed in 1984.... .
MS Viking 6 MV Wickersham MV Wickersham was a mainline ferry vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway.Wickersham was the second vessel, after the MV Chilkat, in the Alaska Marine Highway fleet to not have been constructed specifically for AMHS, but was rather acquired for from the Stena Line, where it was known as the Stena... MS Sun Express MV Wickersham MV Wickersham was a mainline ferry vessel for the Alaska Marine Highway.Wickersham was the second vessel, after the MV Chilkat, in the Alaska Marine Highway fleet to not have been constructed specifically for AMHS, but was rather acquired for from the Stena Line, where it was known as the Stena...	1982, 1985—1986 1985		Chartered	Scrapped 2001 at Aliağa Aliaga Aliaga can refer to:* Aliaga, Aragon, Spain* Aliağa, Turkey* the Filipino municipality of Aliaga, Nueva Ecija on Luzon* a family name, as in the case of the Peruvian writer Felipe Pardo y Aliaga... , Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... .
	1983—1989 1989—1990		Chartered.	Since 2000 MS Moby Lally for Moby Lines Moby Lines Moby Lines is an Italian shipping company that operates ferries and cruiseferries between the Italian or French mainland and the islands of Elba, Sardinia and Corsica. The company was founded in 1959 under the name Navigazione Arcipelago Maddalenino .In 2006 Moby Lines purchased Lloyd Sardegna... .
	1983—1984			Since 2007 MS Ionian Spirit for Agoudimos Lines.
	1986—1988 1988—1996 1997—1998	(until 1990) (1990 onwards)	Chartered	Since 1999 MS Larkspur for TransEuropa Ferries Transeuropa Ferries TransEuropa Ferries operates a ferry service between Ramsgate, Kent, UK and Ostend, West Flanders, Belgium. TransEuropa Ferries n.v. is the cross channel satellite arm of TransEuropa Shipping Lines d.o.o. of Slovenia.... .
	1988—1997		Chartered	Since 2007 MS Rostock for Scandlines Scandlines Scandlines is a major German-Danish ferry operator.It consists of a parent company, Scandlines AG, and under this parent company a German subsidiary named Scandlines Deutschland GmbH and a Danish subsidiary named Scandlines Danmark A/S... .
	1989		Chartered	Since 2006 MS Jamaa II for Bayway Shipping Co.
	1991—1993 1993—1996		Chartered	Since 2006 MS Phocine for Cobelfret Ferries.
	1991—1993 1993—1997		Chartered	Since 2006 MS Cervine.
	1992—1995		Chartered	Since 1998 MS Gute for Rederi AB Gotland.
	1994		Chartered	Grounded 2008 as MS Riverdance, subsequently scrapped.
	1995—1997 1997—1998		Chartered	Since 2007 MS Ammari for Ustica Lines.