Maiden voyage - Ear To The Ground - Stockholm to Tallinn - Brief Article

For A Change, Dec, 2003 by Alison Wetterfors

Sailing between the rocky pine-clad islands of Stockholm's archipelago on my way to Tallinn, Estonia's capital, I was reminded strongly of my first trip in 1990, as the Iron Curtain began to crumble. We sailed on the maiden voyage of the ill-fated Estonia, which sank in a storm in 1994 taking more than 800 souls with her, a tragedy that united Estonia and Sweden in grief.

The first voyage was a joyful one, carrying many Estonians on their first trip home for many years. I well remember one old man as he greeted a sister, whom he had not seen for 46 years, on the quay in Tallinn.

The Baltic Sea is small--the distance from Stockholm to Tallinn is shorter than to Gothenburg on Sweden's west coast. The different countries' histories have been interwoven from earliest times and the fall of communism has led to a dramatic process of re-orientation.