Foul play on the Swedish seas

  • 2008-07-09
  • From wire reports
TALLINN - The evaluation committee from the international shipping-control organization Paris MOU will ask the Swedish Maritime Administration to reconsider its decision to detain the cruise ferry MS Fantaasia.
Swedish inspectors had detained the Estonian-flagged ship in the port of Gothenburg on Nov. 21, 2007, because of numerous shortcomings detected in the course of an inspection. Estonian inspectors, however, contested the inspection results, saying the ship was undergoing repairs at the time.

The Estonian Maritime Administration now says that the detention of the ship caused a row between the two countries' inspection agencies that neither correspondence nor negotiations has been able to settle. The maritime authority then referred the case to the Paris MOU body, which informed the Estonian Maritime Administration on July 4 of its decision to ask the Swedish body to reconsider its detention of the Fantaasia.
The Paris MOU evaluation committee confirmed the Estonian authority's opinion that the inspection was performed on the ship while it was under repair and that the detention was therefore inappropriate.

The ship accommodates 1,500 passengers and 300 cars and had been under charter by the Norwegian company Kystlink Estonia. Tallink Line Ltd., a subsidiary of the Estonian shipping line AS-i Tallink, concluded its sale of the ship to the Norwegian company Boa RoRo just last week, for 17.2 million euros.
Paris MOU consists of 27 participating maritime nations and administers the waters of the European coastal states and the North Atlantic region between North America and Europe. It works to maintain and improve the safety and operation of international shipping through the inspections of ships while in member states' ports. Estonia became a full member of the organization in 2005.