Estonia (ship)
Estonia
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| History | |
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| Ordered: | 1979-09-11 |
| Builder: | Meyer Werft, Papenburg, West Germany |
| Yard number: | 590 |
| Laid down: | 18 October 1979 |
| Launched: | 26 April 1980 |
| Acquired: | 29 June 1980 |
| In service: | 5 July 1980 |
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| Fate: | Capsized and sunk on 28 September 1994 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ro Ro Passenger Cruise |
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| Beam: | 24.21 m (79 ft 5 in) |
| Draught: | 5.60 m (18 ft 4 in) |
| Decks: | 9 |
| Ice class: | 1A |
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| Speed: | 21.1 knots (39.1 km/h; 24.3 mph) |
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MS Estonia, previously Viking Sally (1980–1990), Silja Star (1990–1991), and Wasa King (1991–1993), was a cruise ferry built in 1979/80 at the German shipyard Meyer Werft in Papenburg. The ship sank in 1994 in the Baltic Sea in one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century. It is, after Titanic the second-deadliest European shipwreck disaster to have occurred in peacetime and the deadliest peacetime shipwreck to have occurred in European waters, with 852 lives lost.
Coordinates: 59°23′0″N 21°40′0″E / 59.38333°N 21.66667°E
The ship was originally ordered from Meyer Werft by a Norwegian shipping company led by Parley Augustsen with intended traffic between Norway and Germany. At the last moment, the company withdrew their order and the contract went to Rederi Ab Sally, one of the partners in the Viking Line consortium (SF Line, another partner in Viking Line, had also been interested in the ship).
Originally the ship was conceived as a sister ship to Diana II, built in 1979 by the same shipyard for Rederi AB Slite, the third partner in Viking Line. However, when Sally took over the construction contract, the ship was lengthened from the original length of approximately 137 metres (449 ft) to approximately 155 metres (509 ft) and the superstructure of the ship was largely redesigned.
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