Viking Sally

Yard number S. 590 was delivered by MEYER WERFT in 1980. The 157-metre-long car and passenger ferry was built for the Finnish shipping company Ab Sally. Viking Sally was initially used along the Stockholm – Mariehamn – Turku route. In 1990, it started operating between Vaasa (Finland) and Umeå (Sweden) under the name “Wasa King”.

In 1993, the car and passenger ferry was bought by the Swedish-Estonian joint venture of Nordström & Thulin AB and the Estonian Shipping Co. It then formed a link between the capital cities of Stockholm and Tallinn under the name “Estonia”, becoming the largest and most modern ferry to sail under the Estonian flag.

On 28 September 1994, Estonia was navigating through the rough waters of the Baltic Sea – much too quickly, as was later discovered – and the collapsible bow visor was ripped off by the force of the sea. Seawater penetrated the ship, sinking the Estonia in a matter of minutes and leaving 852 people dead.

The cause of the disaster is yet to be fully explained. Various experts have ruled out the possibility of structural faults from MEYER WERFT. Some of the possible causes include poor maintenance, explosions on board and a cruising speed that was inappropriate for the conditions. The case was finally closed in the summer of 2019, when a French court ruled the shipyard was not responsible for major structural defects on Viking Sally.