Norwegian Ferry History

[heretix]

MS "Bilfærgen" ("The Car Ferry") is the oldest car ferry in Norway. She was built by Nerhus shipyards at Ølve in Hardanger in 1921.

When the keel was stretched, it was planned that the boat should be a fishing cutter. During a period with many major road construction projects, AS Aalesund Færgeselskap took over the hull and finished it as a car ferry. The cargo hold was rebuilt as a lounge. She could now take four cars over the bow. In addition, there was room for one motorcycle with a sidecar. After "Bilfærgen" had been fitted with a one-cylinder Bolinder engine from 1916, she was used on the Vestnes - Åndalsnes run during the summer of 1922. Aalesund Færgeselskap then rented her out to Møre Fylkes Ruteselskap, which put her into summer traffic between Hellesylt and Geiranger.

In 1925, the latter company bought the ferry. She was now seen regularly between Vestnes and Molde. The redeveloped larger deckhouse provided better conditions for her travelers. Car capacity was, however, reduced from four to three. New standards for spelling in the Norwegian language implied that the name was changed to "Bilfergen"

In 1934, the ferry was rebuilt once again. The car deck was made drive-through from bow to stern and the capacity increased to five cars.

In November 1940, Bilfergen was requisitioned by the German occupying forces and used to transport various military vehicles along the west coast. After the war, she was reinserted in different routes in Møre og Romsdal County.

Many cars now became taller and the ferry had to be rebuilt again. That was in 1954. This time, she got a new wheel house.

Møre og Romsdal Fylkesbåtar (MRF) as the company was now called, took Bilfergen out of scheduled service in 1959. She was transferred to Sund Municipality in Hordaland in 1960 and taken over by Øygarden & Sotra Rutelag in 1961. After extensive repairs, she was thereafter seen regularly between Tofterøy and Steinsland, a stretch of about only 200 meters. Here, she lasted until 1972, when she failed to be approved during a ship control. Instead of being sunk in 1975, she was handed over to Søndeled Veteranskibsklubb in Risør, which gave her back the shape from 1934.

In 1999, Bilfergen came «home» to MRF, which now took good care of her. From 2006 to 2009, she was renovated again, this time at Hardanger Warf.

Technical details:
-length 17.07 m
-width 4.88 m
-depth 2.13 m
-capacity 40 passenger and 4 cars
-speed 9 knots

Bilfergen in 1954                                                                                                                       Bilfergen newly renovated at Åleund in 2010

[heretix]

In 1934, regular car transport started in the inner Sognefjord area. In the beginning, the cars were hoisted on board and ashore by the steam ships' cranes, but that became increasingly cumbersome and ingenious souls figured out an easier way to load/unload vehicles by constructing a long wooden ramp to drive them on/off the vessel. Still, the ships docked broadside and transported the cars across the deck.

In this picture, you can see one of these early pioneer car-freighting steamers, the "Stavenes", try out the new method at the busy Lærdalsøyri dock.


As the next photo shows, these daredevils even changed ships in mid sea to save time and avoid double travels along the many arms of the Sognefjord. Here, a vehicle is transfered from "Vesle Øyvind" to "Stavenes" in the middle of the Aurlandsfjord in 1935.


"Vesle Øyvind" was comissioned by its captain Eivind Bækken, who rented his services to the shipping company Fylkesbaatane i Sogn og Fjordane. It could take 4 cars and normally sailed between Grinde and Lærdal from 1934 on. As a stabiliser, rocks were placed below deck to prevent listing. The first year alone, 360 cars were transported on that route.

In the Hardanger region, the slightly larger "Tyssedal" had a similar role between Øystese and Eidfjord during that era (1930s).

[heretix]

The first scheduled car ferry service in Northern Norway started in 1938 between Grindjord and Skjærvik in Narvik, along what is now the E6, the country's main north-south highway.

The first vessel to operate on that route was the "Skjomen", which took four cars. www.fjordfaehren.de/no_f2/oskarsborg1927.htm

One of the relief vessels was the "Dagmar", which barely had enough space for two busses.


Later ferries included the "Ankenes", which was among the earliest vessels to be constructed for drive-through car transport from the beginning.


A bridge replaced the ferry in 1972. The last boat to serve this route was the "Virak", whith a capacity of 22 cars.

[Neil]

I remember the days of vehicles pretty much hanging off the ends of car decks here, too.

[heretix]

Yes, safety was a second issue in those days as long as one more vehicle could be taken on board, since you could risk waiting half a day for the next deparure.

When I was a kid, we lived in Modalen, Hordaland, which had only a few ferry dockings a day to connect the community with the outside world. To make room for more cars, it was normal for the crew on the "Oster" between Vikanes and Slottet to gather a few strong men among the passengers and push some cars sideways for another one to fit in between!

On this video, the Oster can be seen between Stamneshella and Vikanes in 1994, shortly before the Norhordland Bridge replaced its sailings and it was eventually sold to Estonia.

[heretix]

When I was baptised in Volda Church in 1961, I was carried across the fjord from Folkestad on board the "Volda", which I later remember serving on the Volda-Lauvstad run, since it had become too small for the main connection between Volda and Folkestad.

Over the next years, it was used as a releaf vessel on various stretches, until something unique in Norwegian ferry history happened: After having been renamed "Mardøla" in 1974, it was transported by truck 10 kilometers from Eresfjord to Øverås, to replace the smaller "Eikesdal" on Lake Eikesdal, thereby increasing the capacity from 4 to 10 cars and providing drive-through facilities. Here, it connected the villages Eikesdal, Hoem, Vike and Øverås until 1991, when a new road along the lake's northeastern shore ended more than three decades of car transport on Lake Eikesdal and the Mardøla re-emerged as the party boat Ferga.

[westernflyer]

Jun 9, 2015 9:51:45 GMT -8 heretix said:

 the Mardøla re-emerged as the party boat Ferga.

Now that's a good way to give new life to a retired ferry.

[heretix]

I agree; recycling at its best...

Actually, we have about a dozen of them in Norway, most of them ply the waters of the inner Oslo fjord with merry passengers full of shrimps and strawberries.

Other outdated ferries are normally sold to Croatia, Russia, Turkey, Africa or the Caribbean Isles. One was rebuilt as a chemical tanker, while a handful has been fitted with cranes and extra ramps to assist in major construction projects.

Very few have been taken care of by veteran ships clubs, but the progress is slow and governmental funding for such restauration projects is virtually non-exisiting, so some of of them are laying around in a half-finished condition waiting for a private investor/enthusiast with a full money bag to miraculously appear.

One sunshine story involves the "Skånevik", which, commanded by its retired captain, has taken on a new life as a tourist vessel on scheduled trips as this site and video show. The comments are in Norwegian, but the dialogue between the tourists and crew is in English.

[heretix]

From the 1960s on, more and more Norwegian ferries and docks adapted to a standardised system that works as follows: The ferries are fitted with a shelf in each end. On this shelf there is welded a metal tooth (or two teeth on newer/bigger vessels). When the ferry is docking, it slides the shelf underneath the end of the dock's car-bridge (which is automatically regulated to a fixed position above the water surface by sensors) and when the car-bridge's end-mounted push-button hits the ferry above the shelf, the bridge lowers itself the last centimeters to rest on the shelf, while the tooth enters a hole in the bottom of the bridge to ensure a firm grip between vessel and land. The ferry's fall-gate then comes down on top of the bridge to prevent it from accidentally loosen from the shelf. Vessel and bridge are thus connected in a double lock-system, which eliminates the need for time-consuming procedures with chains or wires to be hooked up and tightened/loosened and unhooked.

Because of different traffic volumes, there were separate standards for the widths of the bridges and vessels with 20, 30, 40 and 50 cars capacity respectively. Later came even longer and wider bridges that allow for two vehicles beside each other for simultaneous unloading/loading, or one lane unloads the lower deck while the other loads the upper deck. Unlike in Canada, there has never been separate bridges for different decks in Norway, rather up and down ramps once you have entered the ferry.

This video shows the "Vikingen" and the "Hordaland" docking at Årsnes in Hardanger. The best images are from around 4 minutes and onwards, which shows that the entire operation only takes a few seconds.

[heretix]

I found an even better video showing this system close-up as the "Lærdal" docks at Hella. It starts after 2 minutes.

[Kahloke]

Jun 13, 2015 4:45:46 GMT -8 heretix said:

I found an even better video showing this system close-up as the "Lærdal" docks at Hella. It starts after 2 minutes.

Thanks for sharing these videos showing how Norwegian ferries dock. It looks to be very efficient and fast, as you said. Our ferries, both Washington State and BC Ferries, use an apron at the end of a ramp which lowers onto the bow of the car deck, and we still use ropes to tie the boat to shore - pretty time consuming. BC Ferries northern routes use a slightly different system where there are vessels that have internal ramps, but even that system is still a ramp lowering onto a floating dock. We're pretty "old-school" out here, I guess, but our berth structures have to accommodate a wide variety of vessel sizes, particularly with BC Ferries, which has very large vessels, very small vessels, and just about everything in between.

[heretix]

A little summary so far:

While an occasional vehicle could have been hoisted on and off a fjord or coastal steamer up until that point, modern Norwegian ferry history doesn't start until the mid to late 1930s, when the government decided to shift the focus of moving passengers and goods from sea to land. To achieve that end, a lot of road construction projects were launched simultaneously, but the jagged coast with its many islands and fjords provided veritable barriers, as one didn't have the technology to construct long bridges and underwater tunnels 80 years ago.

So how could one deal with this seemingly insurmountable problem? The solution became to let the boats continue where the roads ended. In the beginning, more vehicles were lifted on and off by the help of cranes and winches, but this method soon became awkward, as the number of vehicles transported seaways started to increase rapidly.

The next step was to refit the old steamers with some kind of a platform or primitive car deck that allowed vehicles to be driven on and off the vessels by their own power, but this slowed down the schedules considerably, as one had to wait for the correct water level to allign the deck with the dock, considering the fact that in most of Norway, the difference between high and ebb tide is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2 meters.

A bright head, probably sitting on the shoulders of a dock worker in the inner Sognefjord, solved the high tide problem by constructing a 10 meters long by 2.5 meters wide wooden ramp. The ebb tide had to be dealt with in a little more complex way, since it implied a cut-out gap on the dock where the ramp was placed. By the help of ropes or wires, it could now be cranked up and down along with the tide.

Still, the boats had to be moved forwards and backwards to load or unload each car at the ramp, since they were parked beside each other across the deck. A retired freight skipper came up with a revolutionary idea to remove the pointed bow of his outdated cutter, so that cars could be taken on board lengthwise, one after the other. But dispite being secured by ropes, the ferry tended to drift off the position straight in front of the ramp before another genius constructed the first proper berth with sideways mooring to secure the vessel's position.

A third intelligent mind now cut off the pointed stern as well, to launch drive-through facilities to avoid backing the cars either in or out, except for routes with more than two stops, which were numerous in those days, when the ferries often traveled along the fjords rather than across them.

In 1937, a skipper named Vilhelm Wilhelmsen from Nordhordland north of Bergen got another revolutionary idea, after having visited Denmark and studied ferry construction there. He commisioned a wharf to build a vessel that nobody had seen the likes of in Norway before. Two years later, it started its service between the island community Isdalstø and Steinestø on the mainland. The 12-car "Torefjell" was fitted with a propeller and rudder at either end and could therefore navigate directly between the two docks without having to make a turn and reverse movement for every second trip. Wilhelmsen originally wanted to have only one wheelhouse midships and cutaways from the top deck to get clear lines of sight in both directions, but the authorities refused to approve his initial plans, because they wanted a maximum of passengers and therefore a full upper deck. This implied two wheelhouses for Wilhelmsen, whose innovative technique has later become the standard for double-ended ferries, which, by the way, are called "pendelferje" (pendulum ferry) in Norwegian and "traghetto bidirezionale" (bi-directional ferry) in Italian.

The Torefjell at Steinestø in 1939.


During the war, the Torefjell was requisitioned by the German occupants and their Norwegian minions, who now used it to transport troops and military equipment in Hardanger and Sogn. In 1945, the owners rediscovered it in Harstad, where the Germans had eventually abandoned it when they fled from Northern Norway. One year later, it resumed its original run, before new stops at Frekhaug and Salhus were included in the schedule. At the same time, Knarvik replaced Isdalstø on the main stretch, which was reduced from 35 to 10 minutes, after a new road now connected the two island communities.

In 1951, the Torefjell had become too small and was releaved by bigger sisters of the same design. It was thereafter leased for service in other regions, like Sogn and Agder. In the late 1960s, I watched it arrive at Modalen with 300 sheep on board! In 1981, it was rebuilt as a freighter and it later functioned as a barge in the fish industry. The last report comes from Snilsnesøy in 2006, where it was spotted half-sunk at a private wharf. What a lamentable demise for this great pioneer vessel!

Its original connection between Steinestø and Knarvik (which in the meantime had been linked by road/other ferries to Ålesund and Trondheim) grew to become the busiest in Norway, until it was replaced by the Nordhordland Bridge in 1994. By then, three 140 car ferries commuted between those two docks, along with various smaller substitute vessels.

Knarvik ferry terminal around 1975.

 

[heretix]

There has been an incredible development in Norwegian ferry transport only during the 50 years that I can remember. If we focus on the route between Volda and Folkestad where I grew up, the car capacity cas increased from 17 to 90 over the years. Below, you will find some of the vessels that have proudly served between those two communities.

"Voldaferja", 1936-1947. Photo by Per Urke in 1963 in another fjord.


"Gisle", 1972-1973


"Folkestad" #1, 1973-1984


"Aure", 1984-1992


"Tingvoll", 1992-2000


"Nordmøre", 2000-2002


"Folkestad" #2, 2006-present

[Kahloke]

Jun 23, 2015 13:45:47 GMT -8 heretix said:

There has been an incredible development in Norwegian ferry transport only during the 50 years that I can remember. If we focus on the route between Volda and Folkestad where I grew up, the car capacity cas increased from 17 to 90 over the years. Below, you will find some of the vessels that have proudly served between those two communities.

That's a great snapshot of ferries serving a particular community over the years, and it really shows advancement in vessels, and as you said, the increase in capacity. Out here in the Pacific Northwest, many of our ferry routes show similar growth patterns, and increases.

[heretix]

I forgot to mention that with the "Folkestad" #2 and its sisters, the loading/unloading of foot passengers has been separated from the cars by a barrier, as you can see at the left of the picture. This greatly improves security and reduces the risk of serious accidents, particularly of the squeezing kind between vehicle and barrier. On this particular route, there are many old foot passengers living on the Folkestad side of the fjord traveling to and from the municipality centre at Volda. They have slow reaction and don't feel too comfortable out among the moving cars, so to them, this innovation has been a great relief. Also, note the traffic light arrangement on newer Norwegian ferries.

A bridge 2 km to the east is proposed to replace this ferry, but the plans haven't been approved yet, so nothing will happen for at least another decade.

[heretix]

Until the year 2000, all Norwegian ferries had been fueled by diesel. That year, the first vessel to use liquid natural gas (LNG), the "Glutra" #2, replaced a traditional ferry on the Sølsnes-Åfarnes run in the Molde area. It was later used on Seivika-Tømmervåg and is currently operating on Flakk-Rørvik near Trondheim. This pioneer vessel set the standard for later new-builds, while some older ships have also been rebuilt from diesel to gas.

www.sintef.no/globalassets/upload/marintek/pdf-filer/publications/the-norwegian-lng-ferry_pme.pdf

www.ipt.ntnu.no/~jsg/undervisning/naturgass/dokumenter/Stokholm2002Paper.pdf

The Glutra and the Tresfjord (rebuilt from diesel to gas) serving Flakk-Rørvik in the Trondheimsfjord.


The latest development is electric ferries. The "Ampere" entered service between Lavik and Oppedal on the Sognefjord only a few months ago.

www.siemens.com/innovation/en/home/pictures-of-the-future/mobility-and-motors/electromobility-electric-ferries.html

The Ampere docked in Lavik 2015.



This post completes my brief Norwegian Ferry History so far. Please feel free to ask questions and I'll answer them to the best of my knowledge. I'm no expert, however, just a former user and life-long enthusiast. If I for some reason should forget to monitor this forum, you can contact me through www.heretix.boards.net.

[Starsteward]

Jun 24, 2015 9:50:36 GMT -8 heretix said:

Until the year 2000, all Norwegian ferries had been fueled by diesel. That year, the first vessel to use liquid natural gas (LNG), the "Glutra" #2, replaced a tradional ferry on the Sølsnes-Åfarnes run in the Molde area. It was later used on Seivika-Tømmervåg and is currently operating on Flakk-Rørvik near Trondheim. This pioneer vessel set the standard for later new-builds, while some older ships have also been rebuilt from diesel to gas.

www.sintef.no/globalassets/upload/marintek/pdf-filer/publications/the-norwegian-lng-ferry_pme.pdf

www.ipt.ntnu.no/~jsg/undervisning/naturgass/dokumenter/Stokholm2002Paper.pdf

The Glutra and the Tresfjord (rebuilt from diesel to gas) serving Flakk-Rørvik in the Trondheimsfjord.


The latest development is electric ferries. The "Ampere" entered service between Lavik and Oppedal on the Sognefjord only a few months ago.

www.siemens.com/innovation/en/home/pictures-of-the-future/mobility-and-motors/electromobility-electric-ferries.html

The Ampere docked in Lavik 2015.



This post completes my brief Norwegian Ferry History so far. Please feel free to ask questions and I'll answer them to the best of my knowledge. I'm no expert, however, just a former user and life-long enthusiast. If I for some reason should forget to monitor this forum, you can contact me through www.heretix.boards.net.

     Your postings of news, historic items, videos and photos of marine operations in your part of the world have been very enjoyable to view. I have spent hours, 

     sometimes getting so absorbed in the historical stories of the videos and stories that I've lost track of time. 

     While the historical stories and videos are very educational and entertaining, the stories you've brought to this Forum relating to the new technologies and 

     innovations incorporated into both vessel design and operation and also to shore-side operations, provide us B.C. West-Coasters some interesting

    comparisons to changes being implemented here. For example, the development of an electric powered ferry is most intriguing, which leaves one to wonder if

    a similar idea has ever crossed the 'minds' of those that are charged with providing ferry services etc. to this part of the world?

    Thanks for enlightening us, I for one would welcome your continued participation on this Forum.

      

    

       

[heretix]

The latest entry, the electric ferry "Ampere", is in many ways a test vessel and it has suffered some unforeseen hickups over the few months that it has been in service, like insufficient charging while docked, so that it has tended to fall behind schedule or had to skip an odd roundtrip or in worst case entire days due to technical problems. With no replacement vessel available, this has frustrated commercial drivers, who rely on fixed departure times to conduct their business. But things are slowly improving and the last I heard, the Ampere has now worked as a clock for several weeks. As with all new technology, also electric ferries need to undergo a trial period.

Since I don't live on the west coast anymore, I'm not able to personally monitor the development, like I used to when I was driving buses and trucks. Here in Oslo, we only have the giant cruise ferries to Denmark and Germany, but those serve an entirely different purpose: Long distance travels for 8-20 hours with international cargo, holiday and recreation in mind, instead of the local transport and highway sealink of the smaller vessels I have described above.

I'm just happy if my humble contributions can spark a constructive debate about ferry operations in Canada as well...

As a curiosity, I will include the "Color Magic", the world's largest ferry, which along with its slightly smaller sister "Color Fantasy" run between the Norwegian capital and the North German port Kiel.

[Starsteward]

Jun 25, 2015 15:56:46 GMT -8 heretix said:

The latest entry, the electric ferry "Ampere", is in many ways a test vessel and it has suffered some unforeseen hickups over the few months that it has been in service, like insufficient charging while docked, so that it has tended to fall behind schedule or had to skip an odd roundtrip or in worst case entire days due to technical problems. With no replacement vessel available, this has frustrated commercial drivers, who rely on fixed departure times to conduct their business. But things are slowly improving and the last I heard, the Ampere has now worked as a clock for several weeks. As with all new technology, also electric ferries need to undergo a trial period.

Since I don't live on the west coast anymore, I'm not able to personally monitor the development, like I used to when I was driving buses and trucks. Here in Oslo, we only have the giant cruise ferries to Denmark and Germany, but those serve an entirely different purpose: Long distance travels for 8-20 hours with international cargo, holiday and recreation in mind, instead of the local transport and highway sealink of the smaller vessels I have described above.

I'm just happy if my humble contributions can spark a constructive debate about ferry operations in Canada as well...

As a curiosity, I will include the "Color Magic", the world's largest ferry, which along with its slightly smaller sister "Color Fantasy" run between the Norwegian capital and the North German port Kiel.

     From your report on the new electric powered car ferry, it sounds like the bugs in the new technology are slowly being ironed out. The travelling public is often quick

     to criticize anything that doesn't run to their full expectations, which is understandable if a ferry traveller is on a daily time schedule. It's never easy bringing new and

     to some folks way of thinking, 'radical' new technologies into 100% perfect operation right from the start. Electric propulsion is something that BC Ferries could and

     should be looking at implementing, especially on some the their shorter routes.

     Stay tuned to hear the howls of dissatisfaction from the users of the new cable ferry, soon to be introduced by BC Ferries. I'm betting that the problems you folks have

     had with the 'charging' problems etc. will pale by comparison with the problems BC Ferries is about to be faced with.

     Your Color Line photos, diagram and write-up are really great to see. I'm quite familiar with some of the Norwegian companies like Color Line, Hertigruten Cruises etc.

     The ferry-cruise ships like the Color Magic are truly magnificent! Now THAT is a car ferry! Love the bow door design and the sleek overall appearance of those vessels.

     The interiors of those ships is functionally elegant and the level of passenger service throughout the ship are to be envied.

     Our Northern route services are but a pale comparison to those operated in Norway.

     The only way we could sustain a first class operation like that on our West coast would be for services provided by a privately owned company and we could obviously

     use a much bigger population base from which to draw potential customers.

     You may have become aware by now that our Mid-Coastal route that once featured one of Norway's ferry re-treads, (which never really fit the bill here), has been

     replaced by a vessel that is so totally inadequate that it's embarrassing to all of us. The 'Nimpish's' claim to fame though, as described by our totally inept Minister of

     Transportation, is that the vessel offers "potable water". What a wonderful passenger amenity to offer knowledgeable overseas visitors that want to explore our

     beautiful coast which in many ways bears resemblance to Norwegian coastal waters. The only difference is that you guys know how to do it with class! We obviously

     DO NOT

[heretix]

Starsteward, you bring up some very interesting points that I'd like to comment on.

1. I'm not sure if you are aware of the fact that since about the turn of the millennium, the national and regional authorities in Norway have tasked privately owned operators to run the main domestic ferry services for a fixed number of years through requests for proposal or so-called "tender rounds", as they are known here, where the lowest acceptable bidder is awarded the contract. This has had a number of strange implications. Some of the companies merged, so that we are now stuck with only a handful, like Fjord1, Tide, Torghatten, FosenNamsos and Boreal, to mention the largest. Where they previously could be found in their own home regions, they now operate ferries all over the country. Crew members that don't want to follow the ships to far-away destinations are forced to apply for vacancies with the competitors that take over their nearby routes and they often have to accept less favourable terms in their new employment contracts. Vessels are not fully suitable for other fjords and docks than the ones that were originally meant for, while replacement boats are fewer, smaller and less frequently available. Norwegian wharfs are too expensive in this picture, so that most new ferries are now (at least partly) constructed in countries like Finland, Poland and Spain. This process has saved a lot of money for the state, while at the same time created truckloads of frustration for the users, as the posts in this forum's Norwegian-language sister site clearly shows. New RFPs specify, however, how the vessels for the new contract period should be designed, regarding age, size, handicap availibility and other commodities. One requirement could be that 2 out of 3 ferries between two communities must either be LNG or electric, which forces the operators to think environment and innovation.

2. For some minor routes, cable solutions have been inplemented also in Norway, with surprisingly few difficulties. The following video shows the "Fjon M" between Masfjordnes and Duesund. Note that the docking system is different from the standard elsewhere in the country. Towards the end of the video, you also get a glimpse of an old traditional dock that is no longer in use.



3. I'm sure that with a suitable newbuild and some proper international marketing strategies, the Discovery Coast would have been a great success, not overnight, but possibly within a decade. Communities along the inlets could contribute with traditional activities, which could include plays, shows, musical performances and other stuff that the passengers could participate in, both on board and during brief stops. The point of such a service wouldn't be to get from A to B in the shortest possible time, but to experience unforgettable moments at a leasurely pace. However, if the authorities don't want to use such a unique possibility to promote BC and Canada abroad, I'm afraid that the project would be both too big and too risky for private investors, even if they got the permission to go ahead.

[heretix]

This is probably borderline off topic, but still...

I just came across a very interesting article in Sunnmørsposten, the regional newspaper for the central west coast of Norway about the next development in shipping propulsion, namely wind power. While electric vessels are already in service, windpowered ships are still on the drawing board, with the prospect of becoming a reality in 2019. What caught my eye in the article, though, was the idea of using this futuristic mode of transport for car-carrying vessels, not particularly ferries as such, but rather auto-liners transporting new vehicles between continents. However, I have no problem imagining that a similar system could easily be developed for ferries as well, maybe combined with solar and wave solutions to maximise all possible means for generating green power.

Anyway, here is the promotion video from the manufacturer. Due to language similarities, you'll probably have no problem understanding that Vindskip means Windship.

[heretix]

Just a quick example of what can sometimes happen. Among the hundreds of ferry docks around Norway, a handful of accidents occur every month, almost equally divided between navigation errors and technical problems. This morning, the car bridge at Hollingen suffered a hydraulic pressure failure, which caused it to sink partly into the water. Therefore, the ferry to Gossa Island was unable to dock and had to seek an alternative landing location some 15 kilometers away, thus interrupting the schedule of the route between Mordal and Otrøya Island with confusion in the queue as the result.

Photo credit by Oddbjørn Harnes

[moderndrummer]

Recognizing that this particular thread has been dead for a couple of years.. is there anyone her that can help me with research into the Aafarnes - Solsnes ferry service of April 1940. I am an historian researching for a paper dealing with the German invasion of 1940 and i have specific questions relating to this ferry service.

Thanks in advance.

Ric

[heretix]

Hi, Ric!

I only noticed your post today. Sorry about that...

I lived close to that ferry for 18 years. Between 1990 and 1993, I drove the express bus between Åndalsnes and Molde, so I sometimes crossed between Åfarnes and Sølsnes six times a day!

I have made a quick search about your question and the Norwegian Wikipedia has this to say (translated by me):

"This ferry service opened for car traffic in 1931 with the privately owned 'Moldefærgen', which had room for 4-5 small cars. The background was the completion of the roads around Fannefjorden and Isfjorden. The ferry across Langfjorden thereby connected Molde to the eastern road network, probably inspired by the fact that the year before, there had been established a ferry across the Romsdalsfjord at Våge-Nordvik. Over its first years, there was no fixed schedule, so the crossings were rather based on whistle trips when people needed to get to the other side of the fjord. Until the Second World War, the accumulated traffic averaged on 1000 cars a year (or 3 per day). During the war years of 1940-45, there was no ferry activity across Langfjorden."

Hope that helps.

In case you want me to, I'd be happy to dig a little deeper into the history of the Åfarnes-Sølsnes ferry.

Best regards
Sven