Olau Line
 |
|
| Fate | Dissolved |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1956 |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Sheerness, United Kingdom |
|
Area served
|
United Kingdom, Netherlands |
| Services | Passenger transportation, Freight transportation |
| Parent | TT-Line |
Olau Line was a shipping company that existed from 1956 to 1994. It operated a ferry service from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands from 1974 until 1994. Originally based in Denmark, the company passed under ownership of the German TT-Line in 1980.
Olau Line was founded in 1956 by the Danish businessman Ole Lauritzen. Originally the company concentrated in chartering tankers and cargo ships to other shipping companies, but in 1974 Olau Line started a car/passenger ferry services from Sheerness in the United Kingdom to Vlissingen in the Netherlands and from Copenhagen (Denmark) to Aalborg (Denmark). The latter line was closed after merely a month of service. Between 1974 and 1976 the consistence of Olau's fleet varied greatly, until in 1976 the company acquired M/S Apollo from Rederi AB Slite and renamed her M/S Olau Kent and chartered M/S Finnpartner from Finnlines, renaming her M/S Olau Finn. These two ships formed the Olau fleet for the next four years.
In 1977 Olau attempted to start a service from Sheerness to Dunkerque, France, but this was not successful. By the end of the 1970s the company was in heavy debt, and in 1979 Ole Lauritzen was forced to sell 50% of Olau Line to the West Germany-based TT-Line. The following year Lauritzen sold his remaining shares of the company to TT-Line. At this time the TT-Line logo was adapted as the new logo for Olau Line, but with red and blue colours instead of TT-Line's yellow and blue. TT-Line decided to invest in new, large state-of-the-art cruiseferries for Olau services. These were delivered in 1981 and 1982 as M/S Olau Hollandia and M/S Olau Britannia, respectively. Unlike Olau's earlier ships, most of which were registered in the United Kingdom, the new ships were registered in TT's homeland Germany.
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