Tor
Line
Page
1 - Passenger Ferries 1966-1981
Images link to larger copies
- This page is devoted to
postcards of the passenger-carrying ferries of Tor Line. An alphabetical list of ships covered on this page is shown
below. The
Table beneath gives
links to complete postcard history pages on the individual ships.
Below the table are official
postcards
of the fleet in
date order.
-
- Tor Line was founded by
Trans Oil and Rex Shipping (hence Tor) to instigate a modern
passenger, car and freight service across the North Sea from
Sweden to the UK and Holland. The established operators in this
area were the ELS consortium (ELS = Ellerman's Wilson Line, Swedish
Lloyd and Stockholms Rederi "Svea"), who were initiating
vehicle ferry services at the same time, with the ships Spero,
Svea and Saga. Although new, these ships were very
traditional in concept, and did not have full-height, through
freight decks as designed. In contrast, the two new Tor ships
Tor Anglia and
Tor Hollandia followed the latest Scandinavian trends, with
bright colours, full-height vehicle decks and high speeds (22
knots). The marketing was aimed a new, younger clientele, and
the reduced crossing times appealed to freight customers. The
Tor service followed a triangular route pattern serving Immingham
in the UK, Amsterdam in Holland, and Göteborg in Sweden.
Additional freight-only services with dedicated ro-ro ferries
were also soon introduced (although not covered on this page).
Competition was fierce, and the three ELS members each dropped
out of passenger services in turn, Swedish Lloyd's Tilbury-Göteborg
service being the last closure in 1977, following the arrival
of the much larger, and even faster,
Tor Britannia and
Tor
Scandinavia,
and transfer of the UK terminal to Felixstowe in 1976. These
large ferries were arguably the finest in the world at the time
of their introduction. The control of Tor Line passed to the
Salens group in the late 1970s.
-
- Despite the successes
in winning traffic, the levels of competition kept profits low.
Tor Line entered into a partnership in 1980 with Sessan Line,
who also sailed out of Göteborg, in competition with Stena
Line. This partnership was short-lived since Stena Line acquired
Sessan. On freight services, there was a brief partnership with
former rivals Swedish Lloyd to form Tor Lloyd. Negotiations began
to sell one of the large passenger ships to
DFDS Seaways, but instead DFDS acquired the complete Tor Line
passenger operation in 1981, followed by the freight operations
in 1982. The two passenger ships received
DFDS Seaways livery and, for a short period, the hull logo
of DFDS Tor Line. The passenger ships soon began assisting on
traditional DFDS
Seaways routes,
and soon lost the DFDS Tor logo. In 1991 they lost their Tor
names as well, becoming the Prince and
Princess of
Scandinavia.
-
-
- Ships on This Page:-
- Tor
Anglia
- Tor
Hollandia
- Tor
Britannia
- Tor Scandinavia
-
- DFDS Pages:-
- DFDS - Header Page
- DFDS - Passenger
Ferries Pre-1945
-
DFDS
- Passenger Ferries 1945-74
- DFDS
- Passenger/RoRo Ferries 1974-
-
DFDS
- Dover-Dunkerque Services 2010-
- Tor Line - Passenger Ferries - this page!
- DFDS Tor Line - Freight Ferries
- Scandinavian
World Cruises
- DFDS Caribbean Venture
- www.dfdsseaways.co.uk - DFDS Official Website
-
- Associated Pages:-
- Corsica
Ferries
- Minoan
Lines
- Sessan
Line
- Ferry
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Table of Ship Histories
Tor Line Fleet List
Tor Anglia (1966-1976)
- Tor
Anglia was
built in 1966 for service on the Tor Lines "triangle"
of services between the UK, Sweden and Holland. In 1975, Tor Anglia was sold to Trans Tirreno Express,
due to the imminent arrival of the larger
Tor Britannia and
Tor
Scandinavia,
but was chartered back to continue Tor Line service until June
1976. She was then renamed
Expresso
Olbia, and
used on the services Livorno-Olbia and Genoa-Palermo. From 1978,
Expresso
Olbia was chartered
to Adriatica,
B&I
Line, Fred Olsen,
TT-Line
and Olau Line, until sold in 1981 to Corsica Ferries and renamed
Sardinia Nova.
Sardinia Nova initially served on the Livorno-Olbia route.
During the winter of 1989/90, Sardinia Nova was chartered
to Da-No Linjen for service between Oslo-Frederikshavn, retaining
Sardinia Ferries colours. In 1993, Sardinia Nova was rebuilt
with additional accommodation aft. On return, she served between
Livorno and Golfo Aranci until 2001, when she moved to the Civitavecchia-Cagliari
route. Sardinia Nova
was sold 2006 to D&P Cruises, Genoa, and renamed
Baia Sardinia. Sold
for breaking up in 2010, she arrived at Aliaga, Turkey, in September 2010 but
was resold to Yazici Demir Celik Sa Ve Turizm
Tic. AS, Iskenderun, Turkey as the Atlas He
for use as an accommodation ship in Azganik.
-
Complete
Ship History Tor Anglia
Tor
Line official postcard of Tor Anglia.
Tor
Line official postcard of Tor Hollandia & Tor Anglia.
Postcard
of Tor Anglia at Göteborg.
Scan
supplied by Cees de Bijl.
Tor Hollandia (1967-1976)
- Tor Hollandia was built in 1967. She was a slightly larger
version of
Tor Anglia (now
Corsica Ferries Sardinia Nova) which introduced the Tor Lines services from Immingham to Amsterdam and
Gothenburg in 1966. Both the pioneer ships were sold in 1976 when replaced by
the larger
Tor Britannia and
Tor Scandinavia.
Tor Hollandia was sold to
Minoan Lines and renamed
Ariadne.
Ariadne was sold by
Minoan Lines during 1999 and continued to serve between Italy and Greece as
the Ouranos of Fraglines. Sold again as
F.Diamond in 2007, she was broken up in Turkey in 2010.
-
Complete
Ship History Tor Hollandia
-
Tor
Line official postcard of Tor Hollandia.
Tor
Line official postcard of Tor Hollandia & Tor Anglia.
Spanjersberg
postcard C1123 of Tor Hollandia. Photograph by C.v.d.Meulen.
Colourmaster
postcard PT15185 of Tor Hollandia.
Postcard
of Tor Hollandia at Göteborg.
Scan
supplied by Cees de Bijl.
Tor Britannia (1975-1981)
- Tor Britannia was built in 1975 for the Göteborg-Amsterdam
and Göteborg-Felixstowe services of Tor Line. Her sister
Tor Scandinavia followed a year later in 1976.
They were both 16000grt, carried 1358 passengers, and had a high
service speed of around 25 knots (over 26 knots maximum). In
the late 1970s, there was a brief partnership between Tor Line
and SESSAN Line, marketed as SESSAN Tor Line.
In 1981 the the passenger operations of Tor Line were acquired
by DFDS Seaways. The two ships were initially marketed as DFDS-Tor
Line. From 1983, Tor Britannia operated some services
between Harwich and Esbjerg, which was achieved 4 hours faster
than running-partner
Dana
Anglia due
to Tor Britannia's higher speed. She later served on most
other DFDS Seaways routes, including Harwich-Hamburg,
and routes from Ijmuiden to Norway and Sweden. Tor Britannia
was renamed
Prince
of Scandinavia
in 1991, and in 2001 she operated between Newcastle and Ijmuiden. In 2003 she
was bought by Moby Lines and renamed Moby Drea.
-
Complete
Ship History of Tor Britannia
-
Tor
Line advance official art postcard of Tor Britannia.
Tor
Line official postcard of Tor Britannia.
Tor
Line official postcard of Tor Scandinavia & Tor Britannia.
Colourmaster
postcard PLX13596 of Tor Britannia arriving at Felixstowe.
Jos-Pe
postcard 01796 of Tor Britannia at Ijmuiden.
DFDS
Seaways official postcard of Tor Britannia in DFDS Tor
Line colours.
Tor Scandinavia (1975-1981)
-
- Tor Scandinavia was built in 1976 for the Göteborg-Amsterdam
and Göteborg-Felixstowe services of Tor Line, one year after
her sister Tor
Britannia.
They were both 16000grt, carried 1358 passengers, and had a high
service speed of around 25knots (over 26knots maximum). In 1980,
there was a brief partnership between Tor Line and Sessan Line, marketed as SESSAN TOR LINE.
-
- In 1981 the passenger
operations of Tor Line were acquired by
DFDS Seaways. The two ex-Tor ships were initially marketed
as DFDS TOR LINE. The logo was soon removed, and Tor Scandinavia
began to serve on other
DFDS
Seaways routes.
Tor Scandinavia was renamed
Princess of Scandinavia in 1991. In 2006 she was bought by Moby Lines
and renamed Moby Otta.
-
Complete
Ship History of Tor Scandinavia
-
Tor
Line official postcard of Tor Scandinavia & Tor Britannia.
Dennis
postcard F.0664 of Tor Scandinavia arriving at Felixstowe.
Tor
Line official postcard of Tor Scandinavia in Sessan Tor
Line colours.
DFDS
Seaways official postcard of Tor Scandinavia in DFDS Tor
Line colours.
Corsica
Ferries
-
DFDS
Seaways
-
Minoan
Lines
- Sessan Line
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