Chief engineer Lars Karlsson arrived already at Papenburg three days after the contract was signed together with Captain Brunström (who was replaced five weeks later by Lars Mäkki, the subsequent master of VIKING SALLY), 1st engineer Stig Strömberg and electrician Lars Sjögren. He had been in Papenburg already as owners' representative during the building of VIKING 3, 4 & 5, thus knew the Yard as well as the people including the B.V. inspectors (all vessels were classed by B.V.), spoke some German and was therefore nominated as "coordinator" of owners' superintendents. He stayed until the delivery and subsequently became chief engineer on VIKING SALLY. Apart from the usual leave periods he remained in that position until 30.03.92.
The following is an abstract of his statement concerning the building phase:
«Three days after signing of the contract I came to Papenburg together with Capt. Brunström (was relieved after 5 weeks by Lars Mäkki), 1st engineer Stig Strömberg, and electrician Lars Sjögren. At the beginning I had only 1 small GA plan, deck and engine specifications were shown to me.
Due to pressure of time we had to make a lot of compromises. In my opinion and experience the Meyer Werft was the only yard in Europe able to do such a job because of so little bureaucracy. This has, in my opinion, nothing to do with the catastrophe. Meyer Werft has very much experience. They have built all ships very strong, i.e. they were usually heavy. It is a well known fact that Meyer ships were stronger and behaved better in ice compared to e.g. Wärtsilä ships.
With my team of supervisors I checked everything including, and in particular, weldings in close co-operation with B.V. surveyor Lohmann and his colleague. As far as I remember Lohmann was more active on VIKING 1-5, whilst on VIKING SALLY he was the boss and the other one did the routine work. Anyway Lohmann was always present when major items, such as ramp and visor, were presented by the yard and tested.
My best contacts were Mr. Motikat and Mr. Wahnes. F.B.N representatives came from time to time, however, all paperwork was done by the Sally office in Mariehamn directly with F.B.N. Helsinki. I did some inspections with F.B.N. representatives in Papenburg, e.g.- stairways, lifts;
- boats, liferafts, etc.
- fire doors, fire-fighting equipment, etc.Chief officer Lindström came about 3 months before delivery. I also inspected visor/ramp etc. I checked the visor during building together with the 1st engineer. It was very hectic during the last days before launching because there were delays in delivery of equipment from Sweden due to a strike in this country. After launching the visor was lifted ashore again. It was before only welded to the vessel by steel-bars. At present I do not remember details of the bearing/bushing system of visor hinges.
The bow ramp was considered to be the collision bulkhead same as on all the predecessors built by Meyer Werft, but also the same as on e.g. TURELLA, ROSELLA, VIKING SONG, VIKING SAGA, and many other ferries.
On car deck there were 4 cameras installed, i.e. 1 forward to the forward ramp, 2 at the sides and 1 looking aft to the stern ramp. The cameras could be moved and had also zoom ability. Monitors were on the bridge (located at port side of the entrance to the chart room) and in the engine control room (ECR) above the instrument panel. The camera picture shown on the monitor could be changed to another camera either manually or automatically. The monitors on bridge and in ECR were showing the same picture. The main monitor with operating sticks was in the ECR, i.e. the bridge could not change to another camera.«
The complete statement of Lars Karlsson can be found in Enclosure 2.4.5.60.
The vessel was finally taken over by owners on the 29 June 1980 at 23.30 hours at Emden according to the Delivery Certificate attached as Enclosure 2.4.5.61 and the "Handing Over Report" attached as Enclosure 2.4.5.62.
