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Stena Line Companies

Stena Line
Actie Concordia [Rederi. Actie Concordia]
Göteborg - Fredrikshavn linje (Sessan line)
Lion Ferry A/B
Scandlines

See also:

Stena Line

Stenna Line depiction

image by Jorge Candeias and Jarig Bakker

Stenna Line depiction

image by Jarig Bakker

Stenna Line depiction

image by Jarig Bakker
Source: Brown’s Flags and Funnels of Shipping Companies of the World, 1995 [lgr95]

The flag is confirmed by the Josef Nüsse collection with the blue and white bands being the same width. However there are various other flags ascribed to Stena. Haws in his book on British Railway steamers and their eventual takeover in 1990 by Stena to become Stena Line Ltd., shows the Stena flag as white with a very broad red horizontal band bearing a white "S" but this version seems suspect with Brown 1995 showing a small emblem above the bottom end of the "S" which is the bow view of a ship over a wavy white line and this is supported by the Josef Nüsse site flag. Brown 1982 [lgr82] however, whilst showing the ship does not show a wavy line. Then the Collectors Corner cap badge site shows a red flag bordered white having the emblem and wavy line but coloured yellow with the "S" still white. Which or whether of these are correct or were used at some stage is not known by myself.
Neale Rosanoski, 5 August 2003

image by Jarig Bakker, 19 January 2005
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26]

Gothenburg - burgee divided vertically blue - red; on blue yellow crescent enclosing white 5-pointed star.
Jarig Bakker, 19 January 2005

Although this source shows a decrescent others show it as the letter "C" with the best guide being the cap badge to be found on Telia.com. The company itself dates from 1888 and was originally operated by Justus A. Waller who was succeeded by Per Waller and then in the 1950s Birtel Magnusson took over ceasing operations in the late 1960s. Brown 1958 shows a white "C" instead of yellow but this appears to be a printing error.

In the late 1970s the company revived and then came under Stena Line who renamed it Stena Rederi A/B in 1987. I would think that it probably used Stena colours from this point.

image contributed by Neale Rosanoski, 27 February 2006

As well as this company there was also Rederi A/B Castella, formed in 1931, which appears to have also used the flag and various sources show the livery under the different names. However another company, Rederi A/B Unda which was formed in 1902 and is shown as being operated by Per Waller by Talbot-Booth had a separate flag of diagonal quarters of red (upper), green (lower) and white (hoist and fly) with a blue "U" in the hoist. Talbot-Booth shows this in his 1937 and 1938 books but later appears to indicate it using the "Concordia" flag.
Neale Rosanoski, 27 February 2006

Göteborg - Fredrikshavn linje
(Sessan line)

Sessan line flag

image by Jarig Bakker, 8 August 2005
Source: http://kommandobryggan.se/Bryggan/Rederi.htm

One stripe of the saltire changed color; lighter blue shade.
Jarig Bakker, 8 August 2005

First version

[Göteborg - Fredrikshavn linje first flag]

image contributed by Neale Rosanoski, 9 May 2006

The first version is also shown by Talbot-Booth [tbb36] and Brown editions but there are slight differences in the cap badge shown on the Collectors Corner website which has the central diamond edged gold with the letters the same shade which is darker than the bright yellow shown for the edging of the diagonal band, and also the two outer letters "G" and "L" are shown with their outer edges angled in line with sides of the diamond. As far as the second flag is concerned I have not found any supporting evidence for its existence and wonder, in view of the unclear aspect of the source images, whether it is just a misprinting with the main purpose being to show the difference in funnel markings where the flag has been added as a panel.

The official company appears to have been Rederi A/B Göteborg-Frederikshavn who are shown by Lloyds as owners right through until 1988 when the last vessel was transferred to Stena A/B (who had acquired the company in 1981) as the "Stena Saga". The title of Sessanlinjen was only the trading name but it does appear that at the end the last vessel "Kronprinsessan Victoria", which was only briefly in their service from building in 1980, really adopted the Sessan brand and going by the cap badge in Collectors Corner there was a blue flag bearing a gold mermaid though the colour of the lady is a bit doubtful in that a postcard of the funnel shows what appears to be a white figure and I would normally expect both funnel and flag to use the same. The logo is shown on the same site source given for the flags and there it is white with blue outlining and shades. Whatever the colours, they did not last long, being replaced in 1982 by those of Stena.
Neale Rosanoski, 9 May 2006

Lion Ferry A/B

image by Jarig Bakker, 12 January 2006
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of Shipping Companies of the World [lgr95]

Varberg - blue tapering burgee, yellow lion.
Jarig Bakker, 12 January 2006

This flag is very close of that of Bonnier Rederierna.
Dominique Cureau, 13 January 2006

Another artistic rendition is shown at telia.com. If I understand the accompanying text correctly, the firm was a Stena subsidiary which was incorporated into the mother firm on 1 December 1997.
Jan Mertens, 13 January 2006

	The company was formed in 1959 being taken over by Stena Line A/B in 1982 but the name continued until 1985 though in 1995 Stena developed another Lion Line for the Karlskrona-Gdynia run but in 1998 [according to Lloyds] the Lion Ferry name was abolished with everything coming under the Stena brand. Lion Ferry A/B was a wide spread operation and included services between USA and Canada as well as throughout Europe where it was also involved in the Prins Line. Different liveries were used for the various services and an ordinary swallowtailed version [see top left] was used for the North American and Prins Line ventures. The version mentioned by Jan has a black lion facing the fly [see left, second from top] as has not been found mentioned anywhere else. However a change does seem to have occurred with Josef Nüsse showing a tapered blue swallowtail with the yellow lion facing the fly but positioned more salient [see left, second from bottom] but I have a photo [undated] of the "Lion Queen" with a flag showing the lion facing the fly but with front legs less raised as originally shown [see bottom left]. The flag actually looks to be rectangular but that painted on the funnel is definitely forked so the discrepancy is probably due to flapping. Neale Rosanoski, 6 June 2006 Karlskrona is a town in southeast Sweden, Gdynia a town in northern Poland. Elias Granqvist, 6 June 2006



images contributed by Neale Rosanoski, 6 June 2006

See also: Bonnier Rederierna

Scandlines

Scandlines

image by Jarig Bakker, 12 August 2005
adapted by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 April 2006
Source: http://kommandobryggan.se/Bryggan/Rederi.htm

Scandlines, a company operating several ferry lines in the Baltic and North Sea. Its house flag features the company logo, three parallelograms blue, red and yellow, forming a triangle pointing down. The background was usually white, both in real flags on board and at the Swedish side (and also on logos in brochures and inside the ferries), but at the Helsingør harbour I spotted a row of some four or five flag poles flying the same flag but with a dark blue background.
António Martins-Tuvalkin, 21 October 1999

There are several companies using the "Scandlines" name, the Swedish one being Scandlines A/B renamed 1997 from SweFerry A/B. The flag may also be used by Scandlines A.G. which is a Danish/German amalgamation formed in 1996.A point though on the dark blue flag also seen in that if the field is that colour then the dark blue of the logo would not stand out. On the black funnel the logo blue appears to be a lighter shade which would then enable it to appear on a dark blue flag field.
Neale Rosanoski, 5 August 2003

An initial cooperation between the state ferry lines of Sweden, Denmark and Germany led to Scandlines. Apparently it began as a trade name after the Swedish company Scandinavian Ferry Lines A/B was reformed as SweFerry A/B with a new livery which included the flag taken from the kommandobryggan website with the yellow-blue-red [reading clockwise] triangle. This is shown on a postcard [?] on the site showing the name as ScandLines [sic]. Use of the flag is also confirmed from a 1994 photo of one of the SweFerry vessels. In 1996 it also formed a joint venture with the Danish Government ferry company DSB Ferries as Scandlines A/S based in Denmark which was the first actual company of the name. Then in 1997 the Swedish company changed its name to Scandlines A/B and 2 years later became a subsidiary of Stena Line. In the meantime the ownership of Scandlines A/S became shared between the German and Danish Governments and in 1998 Scandline A.G was set up in Germany as the parent company. The Scandline service of today is thus operated by two separate companies but shares a common livery which at some point has seen the flag triangle switch to a red-blue-yellow order as given by Jarig. That this logo is common can be seen both by its appearance on the websites for both companies and also on the ship funnels. According to the Scandlines A.G website the colours represent Denmark, Sweden and Germany respectively. Possibly the new arrangement is based on their geographical relationship. A good shot of the actual current flag can be seen at scandlines.de.