Svenska Lloyd / Swedish Lloyd

The Fleets

The origins of Swedish Lloyd date back to 1869, but it was only with the purchase of Thule Line in 1916 that they entered the North Sea passenger market. The Thule Steamship Co. had been formed in Gothenburg in 1870. They traded between Gothenburg and Granton (near Edinburgh) in Scotland, chosen because the Wilson Line (Thomas Wilson & Son) was already dominant in Hull, and London was already served by the London Line of a different Wilson, J.W.Wilson (an Englishman based in Gothenburg). Thule's first passenger steamer was the Bele of 1879. In 1882, Thule acquired the London Line of J.W.Wilson, and amalgamated the fleets. Bele was transferred to the London route. In 1882, Thule added the new steamer Thorsten to the London route, followed by the Thule in 1892. At this point the Bele reverted to the Granton route. In 1898, the Balder was added to the Granton route, and in 1909, the first Saga entered service to London, displacing the Thorsten to the Granton route. From 1910, calls were made at Harwich on the way to London. Thule Line was itself absorbed by Swedish Lloyd in 1916, along with passenger ships Bele, Thorsten, Thule, Balder, and Saga (1).

The first Swedish Lloyd addition to the fleet was the first in Patricia 1919, although the ship had been built in 1901 for Vladivostok-Shanghai service. Patricia (1) inaugurated a new Newcastle-Gothenburg service with the Saga (1). Patricia (1) and Saga (1) were replaced in 1929, when the two turbines Suecia and Britannia were delivered for the London service. They maintained this service until 1966, despite two new diesel ferries delivered after the war, the Saga (2) and Patricia (2). These two impressive ferries were designed for summer service between Gothenburg-London only, with cruises being undertaken in winter. However, they proved too large even for peak summer service, and both were sold in 1956-1957, leaving the route to the 1929 turbines until replaced by car ferry Saga (3) in 1966.

Swedish Lloyd had joined forces with other established operators to form the ELS consortium (ELS = Ellerman's Wilson Line, Swedish Lloyd and Stockholms Rederi "Svea"), and they initiated vehicle ferry services at the same time, with the ships Spero, Svea and Saga. Although new, and beautifully fitted out, these ships were very traditional in concept, and did not have full-height, through freight decks as designed. In contrast, the two new Tor Line ships Tor Anglia and Tor Hollandia followed the latest Scandinavian trends, with bright colours, full-height vehicle decks and high speeds (22 knots). The Tor Line marketing was aimed a new, younger clientele, and the reduced crossing times appealed to freight customers. The Tor Line 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. 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 Tor Line terminal to Felixstowe in 1976.

Many thanks to Henk Jungerius and Ted Finch for their assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide.

Routes

• London (Tilbury)-Gothenborg
• Newcastle-Gothenborg

Ships