As the 29 September closure of the DFDS service linking Esbjerg with Harwich approaches, there is news of the sale for scrap of one of the route’s most popular vessels from the mid-1970s into the 1980s. Latterly owned by Albania Ferries as Adriatica Queen, the 1974-built former Dana Regina is heading to Turkish breakers at Aliaga after a career spanning 40 years.
Completed at Aalborg, Denmark, the 10,002gt/861-bed Dana Regina passed through Tower Bridge to show the flag in Central London before a service debut in April 1974, and made over 1,250 North Sea crossings before switching for a seven-year stint on the DFDS Copenhagen-Oslo route in 1983.
Baltic service for Nordstrom and Thulin as Nord Estonia started in 1990, and during 1993 there was operation as Thor Heyerdahl between Larvik and Frederikshavn for Larvik Line prior to 17 years in Tallink ownership as Vana Tallinn. The vessel was sold to All Ferries SA to become Adriatica Queen in 2011, although she seems to have seen little recent Albania Ferries service.
