Stockholm Sails In Pentland Firth Again

12th May 2015

Magnificent 'ocean greyhound' sails through Pentland Firth again in 2015; her first regular transit was back in 1948.

A classic ocean liner dating from the 'golden age' of transatlantic passenger ships has passed through the Pentland Firth, almost 70 years since she made the first of her many regular transits of the tide-swept, narrow channel between Caithness and Orkney.

With her sleek yacht-like profile and white-painted hull, the 15,000 tonne Swedish-American liner Stockholm symbolised luxury & elegance as she sailed with 500 passengers through the Firth's waters between her home port of Goteborg (Gothenburg) and New York in the post-War era.

With her single yellow funnel with a blue circle showing the Swedish 'three crowns' Royal insignia, Stockholm, launched in 1946, is the last active still-sailing survivor of the period before transatlantic passenger jets drove ocean liners from the sea-routes linking Europe and North America.

The world's oldest active passenger ship was back in the Firth early on Monday morning (11.05.15) as Azores on a British Islands 10-day cruise from Bristol that included Orkney with a stop-over in Kirkwall.

The vessel that was once the smallest of the inter-continental 'ocean greyhounds' (Sweden's population in 1950 was just 7 million) now sails as part of Essex-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages four-strong fleet.

The UK company states that : 'It presents no-fly cruising holidays aboard smaller and medium-sized classic and more traditional-style ships'.

Stockholm and her sister-ships Kingsholm and Gripsholm were the main means of transport between the two countries until airlines forced the passenger sea-routes to close.

Since her sale by the now-defunct Swedish-America Line in 1960, the vessel has had many different names under various owners and operators as a cruise-liner.

She even survived a lengthy spell of being laid up from 1985 until, completely rebuilt internally, she re-emerged as an Italian holiday liner in 1994. Her riveted steel hull was ice-strengthened during construction and its extra thickness is said to have contributed to her longevity.

Although owned and registered in Portugal, she commenced a long-term charter to the English company in early 2015, the first time that she has ever regularly operated from British ports including Bristol, Tilbury and Liverpool.

Now her smaller size allows her to call at some islands that are 'out-of-bounds' to the massive modern 'floating holiday camps' ; the current round trip included Mull and the Isle of Lewis, as well as Kirkwall from where she will sail on to the Isles of Scilly, Guernsey in the Channel Islands and the little French town of Honfleur at the mouth of the River Seine, famous for its Calvados apple-based sprits.

In 1956, while still a regular on passages through the Pentland Firth, Stockholm and the Italian liner Andrea Doria collided in thick fog off Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, close to the United States East Coast.

A total of 52 passengers and crew were killed in the accident, with the major maritime rescue played out 'live' on TV screens for the first time.

The much bigger Italian ship sank, with Stockholm acting as a lifeboat for survivors and she was able to limp back into New York unaided. The subsequent Court of Inquiry found the Italian captain largely to blame and Stockholm resumed her schedule once her stoved-in bow was rebuilt.

Yesterday former local councillor Bill Mowat said : 'When I was growing up in John O'Groats, Stockholm meant luxury to us; her white-painted good looks were such a contrast to the rusting cargo-ships and distant-water trawlers that were the Firth's regular users at the time. And, of course, thoughts of New York were exciting to us then; big American cars on the roads and studios where our favourite pop-stars made their records'.

The modern Azores has a black-painted hull but her sleek, original, lines are still clearly discernable.