The shipping company Bore has long traditions in shipping, and today’s business is focussed on flexible solutions to the cargo transportation requirements of its clients. The company began operations in 1897 as the Bore Steamship Company and its first ship was the S.S. Bore, built for year-round service between Turku and Stockholm. She was delivered in 1898. The evolution towards the company’s era of Ro-Ro cargo operations started when Bore entered the cargo service trade in 1924, from Finland to the North Sea region. In 1967, the company introduced the first Ro-Ro vessel in Finland that was equipped with a stern ramp.

In 1926 a Finland-South America service was opened, which operated for 30 years. In 1958 the Finnish Steamship Company, Rederieaktiebolaget Svea, and Bore founded Silja Line for a passenger service between Finland and Sweden. This service continues today under the ownership of the Tallink Grupp. In 1980 Bore left the passenger shipping industry and focussed on cargo shipping with the 17,884grt Bore King and Bore Queen being delivered. These ships went on to serve P&O North Sea Ferries 1991-2013 as the Norking and Norqueen. In 1987 Bore merged into the Rettig Group and, 4 years later, Rettig and Finnlines agreed a transfer of the Bore Line operations to the Finnlines Group. In 1999 the 20,296gt Ro-Ros Norsky and Norstream were delivered from Aker Finnyards, Rauma, Finland and still serve P&O Ferries’ diminished network today.

In 2007 Bore, Engship and BHC merged into a new shipowner, namely Rettig Group Ltd. Bore Ship owning Company. In 2011 Bore became Bore Ltd. and invested in the 25,586gt RoFlex vessels Bore Sea and Bore Song, delivered from Flensburg, Germany and the subject of a Newbuild of the Month at the time. In 2015 a decision, which was to be short-lived as it happens, was made to only operate tonnage under the Finnish flag. The following year Bore was acquired by the Dutch Spliethoff Group and in 2017 the Bore Sea and Bore Song switched to the Dutch flag. Most recently, Bore signed a new-building contract with Wuhu Shipyard Co. Ltd. in China during 2019 for a trio of new LNG-powered Ro-Lo vessels to be delivered during 2022, namely the 9,133gt Bore Way, Bore Wave and Bore Wind. The remainder of the Bore fleet consists of the 10,572gt/1997-built Bore Bay (converted back to Ro-Ro from a vehicle carrier), the 18,205gt/1999-built Estraden and the 10,488gt/1999-built Seagard. Including these Ro-Ros, the fleet totalled 10 ships at the time of writing.

The Bore Way/Wave/Wind form the subject of this feature. The vessels were products of the Wuhu Shipyard Co. Ltd., formerly known as Fujiheng Machinery Plant, established in 1900. The shipyard is the largest shipbuilding enterprise in Anhui Province and has passed the certification of ship industry standard conditions, ISO9001 quality system certification, occupational health and safety management system, energy management system and environmental management system certification. The yard’s products include platform supply ships, 18,000gt heavy crane ships, 24,000gt heavy crane ships, platform guard ships, 28,000gt chemical tankers, 800 CEU capacity Ro-Ro ships, 82,000gt bulk carriers and 64,000gt bulk carriers.

Built for Purpose