Hurtigruten

Hurtigruten is the name of the regular service of ships which has ensured the connection between 34 ports of the Norwegian coast for more than one hundred years.

Hurtigruten, “road fast” in Norwegian, translated by coastal French express train, was launched in 1893 per Richard With who left Trondheim in direction of Hammerfest aboard steamer Vesteraalen. The Company Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskap was born thus.

Largely helped by subsidies of the Norwegian government, the line was a long time a vital bond for many villages to which the ships delivered foods, news and materials, and means of transport in a country where the communications by ground are not very easy.

It serves today 34 ports daily between Bergen (southern west of the Norway) and Kirkenes (Russian border beyond the Northern Cape). The fleet counts eleven modern ships which accomplish the voyage outward journey/return in eleven days. The development of the highway network and air saw the importance of the goods decreasing; cruisings took over. The new ships are worthy of the best cruising ships and the officers of footbridge control these ships in the narrowest fjords what makes of Hurtigruten: “the most beautiful voyage of the World”.

To travel on board Hurtigruten is really not a traditional cruising: no evening dress of rigor but a cordial and very relaxed environment. The stopovers in the more or less important ports are of course interesting but it is especially navigation in the vicinity immediate of the Norwegian coast (and often between archipelagoes and the continent) which makes the attraction of this so interesting voyage in any season with however spring (March-April) that many travellers appreciate particularly for the already important duration of the day whereas it is still " the hiver" in the north of the country. In winter, it is very frequent to observe the northern lights there every night.

List ports

The fleet of the line

La current range resembles a little in smaller and in more relaxed (not of behavior of rigor, not of organized spectacle) the standard vessels of cruising which one finds a little everywhere else, or evoke by their interior the familiar ferries between the continent and British Isles. In summer they are small floating factories with tourists tightened on the bridges with their cameras. Until 2001, one could still sail on one of old the coasters having still some pâtinés boisieries and interior brasses, Harald Jarl http://home.online.no/~hestb/HaraldJarl.html

The first ships were coasters comprising three classes of passengers, propelled to the vapor and open bridge. Comfort for the crew as for the passengers was improving with construction of new vessels. The diesel engines in the place of the steam engines appeared after the 2nde world war and the startup of the " ships italiens".

The fleet of post-war period

The need to renew the vessels was felt. The four first were built with Ancône in Italy at the end of the Forties. They were financed thanks to the export of Morue and other varieties of salt-dried fish. From where their nicknames of “Klippfiskskipene” (ships of salt-dried fish) or “Italiaskipene” (ships of Italy). They were the last built with a back higher bridge. The renewal of the fleet was completed in 1964. All these ships were built with identical, with hold with before and places of life in the medium and in poop.

The intermediate generation

On decision of the Parliament (Storting) three new vessels were built in 1982 and 1983, with initially the stress laid on the capacities of freight and comprised the places of life to front, a broad open bridge equipped with a crane occupying the back. They were rebuilt at the end of the Eighties, the crane being removed, the hold covered with an access integrated in the wall port side, a section of cabins passenger added to the back as well as a panoramic bridge.

New vessels

The last generation was built over the period 1994-2002, with like concern the transport of passengers and tourism. A capacity of loading usable and a side gate of compartment make that the line can still be regarded as a phantom circuit freight and transport of passengers. Some of these ships underwent from 2005 of the rebuildings giving less more roomy cabins but.

See too

External bonds

Hurtigruten France
5 notebooks of voyage on board Hurtigruten
Detailed history off the Hurtigrute and other Norwegian coastal services in English. The text is now available ace has book from www.lulu.com - see Contents page off website for details.
Hurtigruten Information

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