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Post by lmtengs on Jul 7, 2010 20:43:36 GMT -8
I was doing some reading about the old Wickersham, and traced her along her life path. This is what I got so far. I'm not totally sure of this story, because the photos of her in her current state look like her, but she's been lifted and widened a bit. After AMHS sold her, she went to the Sally Line who renamed her MS The Viking. They sold her in 1983 to COMARIT, who named her the Boughaz. Here's a link to the photo of the Boughaz. See the resemblance? 3.bp.blogspot.com/_5Z_dSX5E4U8/Skf5amlrVvI/AAAAAAAADRE/b_WzguHUN94/S570/IMG_2296.JPGOther than that, there's nothing else I could find... If I got it all wrong, could somebody correct my information?
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on Jul 7, 2010 21:04:01 GMT -8
I was doing some reading about the old Wickersham, and traced her along her life path. This is what I got so far. I'm not totally sure of this story, because the photos of her in her current state look like her, but she's been lifted and widened a bit. After AMHS sold her, she went to the Sally Line who renamed her MS The Viking. They sold her in 1983 to COMARIT, who named her the Boughaz. Here's a link to the photo of the Boughaz. See the resemblance? 3.bp.blogspot.com/_5Z_dSX5E4U8/Skf5amlrVvI/AAAAAAAADRE/b_WzguHUN94/S570/IMG_2296.JPGOther than that, there's nothing else I could find... If I got it all wrong, could somebody correct my information? The information you have is completely wrong... See www.faktaomfartyg.se/stena_britannica_1967.htm.
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Post by alaskanmohican on Jul 7, 2010 21:18:32 GMT -8
Well sorry to tell you that the picture is not of the former Wickersham. Unfortunatley her story has a slightly different ending. To start she was built in Sandefjord, Norway for the Stena Line as the Stena Britannica (I believe in another thread I said she was built in Sweden, oops). She had a sister ship named Stena Germanica. Shortly after being built she was sold to AMHS and renamed the Wickersham. As the Wickersham she had her troubles due to the Jones Act however she became very popular with Alaskan residents. Many still remember her for her luxury and ability to handle rough seas. Interestingly one detail many remember fondly is her wooden rails. I have an old AMHS schedule from 1969 with details about and a schedule for the Wickersham, I will post these later, I have to go dig it out. In 1974 she was sold to the Viking Line and renamed Viking 6. I have also read that she was sold to the Sally Line, I am not sure if Sally owned Viking, or if Viking became Sally Line or what the story is there. In 1982 she was sold again to the Sol Lines and became Sol Olympia. Then in 1986 she was sold again to Moby Lines and became the Moby Dream. In 1994 she was transfered to a Moby subsidary named Sardegna Lines, and became the Sardegna Bella. Finally in 2001, she was sold for scrap. And there are pictures confirming her scapping. There is a website called Simplon Postcards which shows a history of ships through postcards. It gives a good history of the ferry formerly known as the Wickersham. Their website is www.simplonpc.co.uk , from the main page you can search for vessel names. Just type in Wickersham and click on the Viking Line Viking 6 link. when I search, it usually comes up as the first link. Just a side note, the Wickersham is one of only two AMHS vessels that were not named after a glacier. The other vessel was the E.L. Bartlet. The Wickersham was named after Judge James Wickersham, an early political figure of the Territory of Alaska in the early 20th century. EDIT: Scott beat me to it, his link is a little more detailed history than I give.
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Post by lmtengs on Jul 8, 2010 12:29:25 GMT -8
Oh man, screw Wikipedia Never trust them. Ever.
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FNS
Voyager
The Empire Builder train of yesteryear in HO scale
Posts: 4,947
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Post by FNS on Jul 8, 2010 15:16:43 GMT -8
I had the privilege in seeing the WICKERSHAM do her beauty passes here on Puget Sound several times. She was quite a neat ship.
I also saw her leave Puget Sound for her last time. She was painted in her new colors in Seattle prior to her departure as VIKING 6. It kinda broke my heart out knowing that this would be my last time seeing her.
I went to Pier 48 and got a close look at her once. A magnificent looking ship she was!
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Post by alaskanmohican on Jul 8, 2010 19:08:27 GMT -8
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timo
Deckhand
Posts: 57
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Post by timo on Aug 27, 2011 0:45:22 GMT -8
In 1974 she was sold to the Viking Line and renamed Viking 6. I have also read that she was sold to the Sally Line, I am not sure if Sally owned Viking, or if Viking became Sally Line or what the story is there. To explain this. Viking Line was formed in 1966 to be a jointly owned company. It provided a marketing name and easier scheduling for three ferry operators. The three companies were: 1. Rederi ab Vikinglinjen founded in 1959- which changed its name to Rederi ab Sally. 2. Rederi ab Slite from 1959. 3. Rederi ab Ålandsfärjan from 1963, which changed its name to SF-Line. Number 2 was Swedish, numbers 1,3 Finnish companies. These three had small and old ferries found on the second-hand market and competed against Silja Line, which was also jointly owned by three companies but their owners were among the biggest shipowners in Finland and Sweden. Therefore the Silja Line fleet was made of modern purpose-built car-ferries, not old steamers or freighters converted to ferries like Viking Line. Anyway, the Wickersham was bought by Rederi ab Sally, and their ferries were operated under the brand name Viking Line, but competition within the Viking Line companies was severe. She was used to start the Helsinki-Stockholm service as Viking 6 together with Viking 5, the current Boughaz. This was from 1974. In 1980 they were replaced by the newbuildings Viking Saga and Viking Song also of the Sally-group, which in turn were replaced by Mariella of SF-Line in 1985 and Olympia of Rederi ab Slite. Sally was not only a ferry company, and owned and operated oil-tankers, freighters and cruise ships. It was this diversity and rather bad investing that caused the company to decline. They made huge investments in old cruise ships and also a ferry service under the name Sally Line between the UK and France, and also the tanker market caused problems, so to cut a long story short, Rederi ab Sally crashed and the passenger business was forcily sold by the banks to rival Silja Line. This left Viking Line with just two companies in 1987. This was the time when the ferry operators ordered a number of huge newbuildings, and eventually the competition became too severe. In 1989 Rederi Ab Slite had ordered the biggest ferry in the world to be called the Europa. Slightly after the order another shipyard were Slite had orders collapsed and this resulted in one of the newbuildings to become more than 20 % more expensive than originally agreed. And in 1992 Sweden then depreciated their currency, which in turn made the Europa suddenly a huge burden. What happened then is still debated, and I will give it only in rough detail. Banks refused more money to Slite, no wonder, by now the banks owned Silja Line and they decided to get the new Europa to be the flag ship of Silja Line. Slite could not complete the financing for Europa, so she was canceled just weeks before delivery and chartered to Silja Line, and delivered as Silja Europa. Step two was to force Slite out of the business completely, and just months after the loss of the Europa they had to file for bankruptcy. This is interesting, as in reality the bankruptcy eventually ended in everybody getting their money from the estate - the company just had no cash, only huge assets. So, from 1993 SF-Line was the sole owner of Viking Line and has since then even changed its name to Viking Line.
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Post by alaskanmohican on Aug 27, 2011 9:54:40 GMT -8
Thanks "timo" , that is info about the Viking Line is really interesting.
One thing about the Wickersham that I found interesting is that the schedule shows that the Wicky called at Vancouver a few times. I would imagine that she called at Tsawwassen, but i don't know for sure, just guessing. It would be interresting to find out more info about that.
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timo
Deckhand
Posts: 57
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Post by timo on Aug 27, 2011 12:11:56 GMT -8
Forgot to add: The names of the vessels gives you a hint to the owners. Rederi Ab Sally used names with a Viking-prefix: Viking 1-6 and Viking Saga, Song and Sally. Rederi Ab Slite used names from the Greek mythology: There were two Apollo and the third was Apollo III, Diana and Diana II, Olympia, Athena, Kalypso and of course the Europa, the ship that ended up in the hands of Silja Line. The two first vessels were named after villages on the island of Gotland: Slite and Boge. SF Line used name with a suffix: -ella. Kapella, Marella, Aurella, Turella and Rosella. These were formed by taking a geographical name from the area and replacing part of the name with the -ella. Then they moved on to female names: Mariella, Amorella, Isabella and Gabriella. In between a fairytale name: Cinderella. The latest newbuilding was given the name Viking XPRS, so the ella tradition has ended. The company has also had two ships named Ålandsfärjan meaning "The Ferry to Åland". Also: Wickersham was converted by Rederi Ab Sally with even more cabins. You can see that from her pictures, when lounge windows were replaced by cabin windows. In my opinion she was one of the most beautiful ferries ever built. Somehow it seems they used her looks when designing their latest newbuilding, the Viking XPRS. Company website: www.vikingline.fi/index.asp?lang=enPresent day Viking XPRS: Picture from kships.blogspot.com/2010/07/viking-xprs-2009.html
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Post by lmtengs on Jan 22, 2012 0:39:45 GMT -8
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Post by Name Omitted on Jan 22, 2012 7:50:57 GMT -8
Those were shots of her as an AMHS vessel? Aw man... Screw the Jones Act.
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Post by ancflyer on Jan 22, 2012 8:38:53 GMT -8
I found some fabulous close-up and on-board shots of the Wickersham while searching for some inspiration for a SketchUp model I've been working on. I don't believe we've had on-board shots of the Wickersham posted here before. She was a beautiful ship. Her on-board stylings look very top-notch, too. What a great find! I've often looked for shots like these, plus deck plans and these are truly the first I've seen. Thanks for posting these.
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Post by alaskanmohican on Jan 22, 2012 14:54:06 GMT -8
That is a great find! I have only seen some pics of the Wicky when she part of Moby lines, and that was years ago when I was shown those.
Thanks for pointing those pics out, the Wickersham is definitely a part of Alaskan history fondly remembered by many.
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mrdot
Voyager
Mr. DOT
Posts: 1,252
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Post by mrdot on Jan 22, 2012 15:33:12 GMT -8
:)quite a pictorial collection of Wickersham shots! she and our stena danica were two of the most shipshapely vessels that served our north coast, but the stena line influnce was a mixed bag! mrdot.
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Post by ancflyer on Jan 24, 2012 13:29:44 GMT -8
Anyone know where to find deck plans for the Wickersham?
I've googled and never came up with anything. Tried her other names as well, got zip.
Thanks
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Post by alaskanmohican on Feb 1, 2012 16:25:33 GMT -8
Another nice pic of the Wickersham, thanks for sharing.
I have been enjoying how many Wicky pics have surfaced lately. I agree with those who think she was the best looking AMHS vessel.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Feb 19, 2012 17:37:18 GMT -8
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Post by Northern Exploration on Feb 20, 2012 9:59:49 GMT -8
Thanks for sourcing all these pics from the Archives. One of the exciting things in the online world is the digitizing of so many resources that were only accessible via dusty hard copy files or microfiche. I recently saw the marriage license for my maternal great great grandparents and located where their first house was via a census from the 1800's.
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Post by EGfleet on Oct 18, 2012 10:05:00 GMT -8
Another slide, this one, alas, undated.
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Post by WettCoast on Dec 23, 2012 22:43:08 GMT -8
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Post by Name Omitted on Jul 18, 2013 9:23:56 GMT -8
Does anyone have a picture of the Wikersham (in any livery) they would be willing to allow to go into Wiki-Commons for the Wikipedia article?
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Post by compdude787 on Jul 19, 2013 16:14:38 GMT -8
Does anyone have a picture of the Wikersham (in any livery) they would be willing to allow to go into Wiki-Commons for the Wikipedia article? That photo WCK posted here was one that I asked him to change the license to CC so I could upload it to Commons. I uploaded it a few weeks ago, but I have just now put it in the Wikipedia article. We're all good on this, though it may be nice to have a color photo.
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Post by Name Omitted on Jul 19, 2013 17:49:52 GMT -8
Excellent. Thanks.
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FNS
Voyager
The Empire Builder train of yesteryear in HO scale
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Post by FNS on Jul 19, 2013 22:02:40 GMT -8
Back in my 3rd or 4th grade year in the early 1970s, a member of the Port of Seattle staff came to our elementary school to teach us about port operations. He handed out photos to us to take home. Here's one of them I received: PHOTO CREDIT: PORT OF SEATTLE PUBLIC RELATIONS This shows the MV WICKERSHAM in Seattle with a pair of youthful superferries in service.
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Post by WettCoast on Aug 30, 2014 10:34:12 GMT -8
The former AMHS ferry Wickersham on a snowy winter transit through SE Alaskan waters - not dated. This is from a painting which hangs in the lobby aboard the M/V Columbia, the vessel that replaced the lovely Wickersham. Unfortunately I neglected to note the name of the artist who created this beautiful work. If anyone has info on the artist I would appreciate that & could then give credit to him/her.
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