Rederi AB Slite was a Swedish shipping company, founded in 1947. The company was one of the three founding companies of Viking Line. Rederi AB Slite went bankrupt in 1993.

History

Early history

Rederi AB Slite was founded by Carl Bertil Myrsten together with his siblings Inga Gattberg, Sven Myrsten and Lars Myrsten in 1947. The oldest brother Robert Myrsten had his own shipping company Rederi AB Robert Myrsten and was not part of Rederi AB Slite. The Myrsten family, from Slite on the island of Gotland, had been in the shipping business since 1867, when Johan Niclas Myrsten founded the dynasty.

In mid-1950s, two newbuilt cargo ships, and , were delivered to Slite. In 1959 and 1961 respectively they were rebuilt to be able to load cars and take passengers. These ships were then put on a route between Simpnäs north of Stockholm and Mariehamn on Åland.

Aftermath

All Slite's ships were sold by compulsory auction after the bankruptcy. SF Line made bids on the Athena and the Kalypso but lost them to the heavily investing Malaysian cruise company Star Cruises. SF Line became the sole owner of Viking Line and changed its name to Viking Line Ab.

After the auction of Slite's ships and other assets, it became clear that the bankruptcy was unnecessary. All the debts could be paid for with the money gained from the ship sales. It has been speculated that Nordbanken did everything they could to break Slite to help their financially poor Silja Line. In March 1993 the Europa entered service for Silja Line as the .

The company was then forced to sell all of its fleet. One of their largest vessels, MS Olympia, was sold to Irish Continental Group and chartered out to P&O Ferries where it was renamed Pride of Bilbao. It operated at P&O for 17 years until 2010.

Ships

This list of ships owned or chartered to Rederi AB Slite, but may be incomplete

  • Slite (in fleet 1955–1964)
  • Boge (1956–1963)
  • Apollo (1964–1968)
  • Visby (1967–1970, chartered)
  • Apollo (II) (1970–1976)
  • Diana (1972–1979)
  • Apollo III (1976–1989)
  • Diana II (1979–1992)
  • Olympia (1986–1993)
  • Viking Sally (1987–1990, chartered)
  • Athena (1989–1993)
  • Kalypso (1990–1993)
  • Europa (1993, never delivered)

References

  • Rederi AB Slite at Fakta om Fartyg