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January 2013 www.sname.org/sname/mt Amorella, a Viking Line vessel built in 1988, approaches Stockholm. PHOTO BY PETER KARLSSON. Silja Symphony, a 203 m long cruise ferry, began service on the Helsinki to Stockholm route in 1991. PHOTO COURTESY AS TALLINK GRUPP. and dancing also feature on these ships. After a com- fortable overnight trip, one arrives in Helsinki harbor, very close to downtown, having feasted on a breakfast of marinated herring, cold meats, and rye bread. Through the islands If one has time, it is worth traveling to Turku in the southwest corner of Finland and returning to Stockholm on the other, somewhat shorter ferry route. What makes that route of interest is that the ship hardly sails in open water at all, instead weaving its way through the islands o Turku to the Aaland Islands in the mid -dle of the Baltic at the entrance to the bay of Bothnia, and then through the Stockholm Archipelago. ere is a middle-of-the-night stop in Mariehamn, capital of the autonomous Aaland Islands, which is worth wait- ing up for to see some expert ship handling. It should be remembered that Mariehamn was the home port of Gustav Eriksons eet of sailing ships, the last cargo- carrying sailing ship line in the world, which used such vessels deep sea into the middle of the 20th century, carrying South Australian grain cargos. Eriksons large four-masted barques would routinely sail on voyages of 30,000 nautical miles (56,000 km) with less than 30 crew. On a more somber note, it is well to remember that the Baltic, like other seas, can be quite stormy at times. We can all remember a major maritime trag- edy that occurred on the night of September 28, 1994, when the ferry Estonia capsized and sank with the loss of 852 lives. Our society, SNAME, played a signicant role in the aftermath of that accident, providing expert tech- nical input to both the United States Coast Guard and the Canadian Department of Transport delegations to the International Maritime Organization, which estab- lished improvements in the regulations governing the safety of such RoRo ferries. MTPeter Noble is chief naval architect at ConocoPhillips and is president of SNAME. For more information on Baltic Ferries, visit one of the many Web sites that o er booking on these and other ferry services in the region.