Rederi AB Svea

Stockholms Rederi AB Svea (originally Sveabolaget, later often referred to as Rederi AB Svea or simply Svea) was a Swedish shipping company founded in the 1870s. It operated a wide variety of ships carrying freight and passengers around the world, mostly concentrating on traffic in the Baltic and North Sea and was one of the largest Swedish shipping companies in its time. Rederi AB Svea was one of the founding members of Silja Line, and operated its ships under the names Skandinavisk Linjetrafik, Scandinvian Ferry Lines, Linjebuss and Trave Line. It also had a Finnish daughter company (Oy Svea Ab) and another daughter company based in the Netherlands. In 1981 Svea was merged into Johnson Line and ceased to operate as an independent company.

Sveabolaget was founded in the 1870s, receiving its first ship in 1872. Most of early Svea ships were steamers used as freighters around the world, carrying whatever cargo they could find from any port to any other port. In addition to these Sveabolaget soon starter operating cargo and passengers around the coast of Sweden and in the Baltic Sea. In 1918 the company (which by this time had changed its name to Stockholms Rederi AB Svea) started collaboration with Finland Steamship Company and Steamship Company Bore on routes between Sweden and Finland. In the 1930s the company radically expanded its freight operations, the size of its fleet growing to approximately 100 vessels.

After World War II Rederi AB Svea began developing ferry traffic from southern Sweden to Denmark and Germany under the banners of Trave Line, Skandinavisk Linjetrafik and Linjebuss. At the same time the company also began operating large ocean freighters. Between 1946 and 1964, Svea was the majority owner of Waxholmsbolaget, the operator of passenger ferries in the . The first modern car-ferries were delivered for Svea in the 1960s. In 1966 Rederi Ab Svea began a joint car/passenger ferry line from Sweden to the United Kingdom with Swedish Lloyd and Ellerman's Wilson Line, but withdrew from the joint service already in 1969, selling its sole ship in that service, MS Svea, to Swedish Lloyd.

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