Four decades of ferry ingenuity

摘要

The Stena Group has become one of the most diverse international maritime forces, yet for many, mention of the name inevitably brings first thoughts of jerries, as Russell Plummer explains. Stena may boast the world's largest passenger and freight ro-ro fleets providing a network of services in Scandinavia, between Europe and the British Isles and across the Irish Sea, plus a heavy involvement in the charter market. Yet it all began rather modestly with the first passenger voyage between Sweden and Denmark five days before Christmas in 1962. Ambitious Swede Sten A. Olsson had emerged as a ship operator as far back as 1947 when chartering a coastal cargo ship that was given the name of his son, Dan. Three decades later, father and son were the driving forces through a period of group expansion when they never appeared to show even the slightest apprehension of trying something new.