SSG No 10 - Shipgaz

T
he ships of the Danish company
J. Lauritzen were well known visitors
to the icy Baltic area and a
number of ports in Finland until
January 31, 1967, when the company terminated
its service, sailing wood pulp
from Finland, mainly to UK destinations.
J. Lauritzen had sailed in the trade from
Finland since the early 1920s, when the
liner service made its first sailings.
One of these magnificent ships, with
the distinctive red hull, was the steamer
Silja Dan. It was built as late as 1951,
when diesel driven vessels were more common,
but shipowner Knud Lauritzen personally
decided that a cargo ship built for
the Finland trade would be better off with
a steam engine. So he ordered the ship
from his own shipyard, Aalborg Værft
A/S, with a steam engine.
When delivered in April 1951, it was not
the last steamship built for a Danish company,
but one of the last ones. The very
last one was the Harrildsborg from the
Sölvesborg shipyard in 1953 – at least
when writing about traditional steam
The last steamship
in the fleet
engines, which does not include turbine
engines.
At the time of delivery the Silja Dan
was painted grey, which was the usual hull
colour within J. Lauritzen, but as from
1956 it was decided to paint all the ships
red on the hull. The idea came from an
experiment with the polar vessel Kista
Dan, which took place in East Greenland
waters in the summer of 1955.
The Kista Dan had some of her masts and
lifeboat painted red, while they were on a
rescue mission for a Norwegian seal-catcher
in distress. The pilot on a Catalina
search and rescue aircraft saw the Kista
Dan’s red colour on the lifeboat at a distance
of 20 nautical miles, while the grey
painted seal-catcher became visible from a
distance of four nautical miles. Shortly
after this, the decision was made. Ever
since then, most of the fleet has been
dressed up in red.
Also the Silja Dan, which remained in
the fleet until July 1964. At that time the
vessel was sold to Lovisa Rederi AB and
handed over for the sum of DKK 2.8 mil-
HÅKAN SJÖSTRÖM
lion at the building yard at Aalborg. The
Silja Dan now became Finnish and got the
name Veli. As the Veli, the ship continued
in the trade from Finland with paper products
to the Continent and the Britsh Isles.
It never got any other name, but lasted
until January 22, 1971, when the crew left
the ship in the Baltic on a voyage from
Hamina to Pietarsaari. A fire broke out in
the engine room with oil-fired boilers and
got out of control. In fact, the fire
destroyed the whole accommodation
qurters midships and the ship was disabled.
However, it arrived at Rauma two
days later and was shortly after declared a
constructive total loss and sold for breaking
up.
In the last days of February 1972 the
remains of the Silja Dan, a steam powered
cargo ship, were cut up in the Finnish capital
of Helsinki. After the Silja Dan, J. Lauritzen
did not build any more steam driven
ships, and they sold off most of the
steamships. The Silja Dan was also the last
steamship in the fleet.
bent mikkelsen
98 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • MAY 21, 2007