MS Color Viking - Service History

Service History

The Peder Paars was delivered to DSB Færger on 1985-10-18, but it was not until a month later that she entered service on the Århus—Kalundborg route. Århus was also her port of registry at the time. She and her sister remained in service for five years, until in October 1990 both ships were sold to Stena Line, to be delivered in May 1991. On 1991-05-19 both the Peder Paars and Niels Klim were withdrawn from service, replaced by the notably smaller second-hand ferries MS Ask and MS Urd. The following day the Peder Paars was renamed Stena Invicta and sailed to the Schichau-Seebeckswerft shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany for rebuilding for service in the English Channel for Stena Line's subsidiary Sealink Stena Line. For this purpose the ship was re-registered in the United Kingdom, with Dover as her homeport. On 1991-08-08 the Stena Invicta entered service on the Dover—Calais route.

Following the formation of P&O Stena Line, the Stena Invicta was laid up on 1998-02-18. In April of the same year she was chartered to Silja Line, Finland for the duration of the 1998 northern hemisphere summer season. Her registered name remained Stena Invicta, but in Silja Line marketing the ship was referred to with the name Wasa Jubilee in honour of the 50th anniversary of ferry operations from Vaasa, Finland. The marketing name Wasa Jubilee was also painted in large letters on the ship's side, alongside the company name. The ship stayed in Vaasa—Umeå service for Silja Line from 1998-04-20 until 1998-09-15. The following month the Stena Invicta arrived in Zeebrugge, where she was laid up. In November 1999 her registered owners were changed from Stena Line to P&O Stena Line. In December she was chartered to Stena Line U.K., entering service on the Holyhead—Dun Laoghaire route on 1999-12-12. At the end of February 2000 her route was changed to Fishguard—Rosslare, but she was withdrawn from service already on 2000-03-20.

In April 2000 the Stena Invicta was chartered to the Norway-based Color Line, with a purchase option included in the charter agreement. The ship was re-registered at Nassau, Bahamas, rebuilt at Drammen, Norway and renamed Color Viking. On 2000-06-14 the ship entered service on Color Line's Sandefjord—Strömstad service. In May of the following year Color Line utilized their purchase option on the ship. She was subsequently re-registered in Norway, with Sandefjord as her homeport.