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DFDS is Northern Europe's largest shipping and logistics company. The company's name is an abbreviation of Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab (literally ''The United Steamship Company''). DFDS was founded in 1866, when C.F. Tietgen merged the three biggest Danish steamship companies of that day. Although DFDS has generally concentrated on freight and passenger traffic on the North Sea and to the Baltic Sea, it has also operated freight services to the USA, South America and the Mediterranean in the past. Since the eighties, DFDS' focus for shipping has been northern Europe. Today, DFDS operates a network of 25 routes with 50 freight and passenger ships in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and the English Channel under the name DFDS Seaways. The rail and land based haulage and container activities are operated by DFDS Logistics. ==History== The Start Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab was formed on 11 December 1866 as a merger of the three biggest Danish steamship companies under the leadership of Danish financier Carl Frederik Tietgen. Operations began on 1 January 1867 with 19 ships with Copenhagen as the main starting point. The company's routes at the time were from Denmark to Norway, the Baltic, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Iceland and The Faeroe Islands, with ships carrying both freight and passengers. As the company grew, new connections were opened to Sweden, France, the Mediterranean and Black Sea, as well as North America and South America. In addition, DFDS operated various domestic services in Denmark. After continued expansion of the fleet in the 1880s, DFDS became one of the world's ten largest ship owning companies. After the takeover of Dampskibsselskabet Thingvalla in 1898, the Scandinavian-American Line was established.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Skandinavien-Amerika Linien )〕 The Scandinavian-American Line continued trading to the United States until 1935. The Two World Wars The First World War took a heavy toll on DFDS' fleet, with 26 ships lost. During the post-war depression a further 30 ships were laid up. The company revived with the establishment of new routes, and by the mid-1920s DFDS' fleet consisted of 124 ships with a combined tonnage of . The Second World War saw further losses to the company, with nine ships lost before the German invasion of Denmark in April 1940. A large number of DFDS ships fell into British hands after the German invasion, and they were used as troopships. German forces commandeered a total of 21 DFDS ships during the war. One DFDS ship, the ''Kronprins Frederik'', was under construction when the war began. To prevent her usage by the Germans, vital engine parts were "lost", only to be discovered after the end of the war. In total DFDS lost 31 ships during World War II, with a further three ships lost due to hitting mines after the end of the war.〔 In 1948, 48 people drowned when KJØBENHAVN hit a mine. Five people lost their lives in the mine explosion of IVAR in 1949, and as recently as 1950 FRIGGA sank without loss of life after having hit a mine. To replace some of the lost ships, a number of almost-completed motor ships which had been laid up awaiting the end of the war were made ready. Gradually the routes that had been discontinued since the beginning of the war were reopened. Between the Wars DFDS created a sensation when they launched the World's first motor driven short-sea passenger ship in 1925 from the Elsinore Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. The first of four sister vessels built between 1925 and 1932 the m.v."Parkeston" ( ) made her maiden voyage from Esbjerg to Harwich on the 8th. of October 1925 at an average speed of 16.5 knots burning 18 tons of oil per day compared to 55 tons of coal burnt by a similar predecessor on the route.〔Greenway, Ambrose (1986); A Century of North Sea Passenger Steamers ; Page 115 : Shepperton, Ian Allan ; ISBN 0-7110-1338-1.〕 The Fifties & Sixties In 1950, DFDS was one of the first to introduce a door-to-door solution. Two ships were specially designed for transport of small wooden containers. DFDS commenced a new service linking Danish mainland to Greenland. This was discontinued in 1959. In 1957 Nordana Line - cargo service Gulf of Mexico-Mediterranean - began. For the first time in DFDS' history the company played the role of cross trader. 1964 saw the introduction of the first ro-ro passenger ferry, when M.s. England entered service on a route connecting Esbjerg to Harwich. In 1965, the Transport Rationalization Department, which later became DFDS Transport, began its activities. M.s. AKERSHUS, the first real passenger-and-car ship which could also take trucks and trailers, was entered into service on the Frederikshavn-Oslo route. In 1966, hundred years after its start, the DFDS fleet consisted of 13 passenger ships, 53 cargo vessels, 4 tugboats and 39 barges. A comprehensive new ship program with 25 ships on order. The passenger ships served on routes connecting Denmark to Norway, the UK, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Finland (though the Finland service was discontinued in 1966) alongside domestic services. The freight services continued linking Denmark to the Americas and various European and Mediterranean ports. BOTNIA, the last steamship, was sold after more than 50 years of service. DFDS was no longer a steamship company. Between 1967 and 1970 four identical car-passenger ferries, originally named M.s. Kong Olav V, M.s. Prinsesse Margarethe, M.s. Aalborghus and M.s. Trekroner entered service on the Copenhagen—Oslo and Copenhagen—Aalborg routes. However, the Copenhagen—Aalborg service was closed already in 1970. The Seventies & Eighties Subsequently the ''Aalborghus'' and ''Trekroner'' were rebuilt and renamed Dana Sirena and Dana Corona, respectively, for ferry services on the Mediterranean. Confusingly, the ships' names were later reversed, with ''Dana Sirena'' becoming ''Dana Corona'' and vice versa. For the Denmark—UK service new ships arrived in 1974 and 1978 in the forms of and , respectively.〔 Domestic passenger traffic was discontinued in 1970 and domestic freight service in 1971. A great chapter in the history of DFDS had come to an end. The requirement for transport of cars was sharply on the rise at the beginning of the 1970s. Tonnage was designed to accommodate this, and all DFDS passenger routes were served by passenger ships with roll on/roll off facilities. The 1980s saw period of growth for DFDS, with the acquisition of Tor Line and Prinzenlinien. In addition to the ferries Tor Britannia, Tor Scandinavia and MS Prinz Hamlet that were acquired with these two deals, DFDS also purchased the Effoa ferry ''Wellamo'' in 1981, renaming her Dana Gloria. Following this brief expansion, in 1982 the Mediterranean ferry services were discontinued and in 1984 DFDS gave up its deep-sea cargo routes completely, concentrating now on the European market. 1982 also saw the beginning of an ambitions project of operated a large ferry/cruise ship, MS ''Scandinavia'', on the US east coast under the brand of Scandinavian World Cruises. Already in 1983 the ''Scandinavia'' was moved to the Copenhagen—Oslo service and sold two years later.〔 From 1982 to 1983 DFDS' passenger operations were branded as DFDS Danish Seaways (Esbjerg—Harwich/Newcastle upon Tyne/Tórshavn, Copenhagen—Oslo, Newcastle upon Tyne—Oslo), DFDS Tor Line (Gothenburg—Harwich/Newcastle upon Tyne/Amsterdam) and DFDS Prins Ferries (Harwich—Hamburg/Bremerhaven). DFDS also operated the Fred. Olsen Bergen Line routes Newcastle upon Tyne—Stavanger/Bergen and Stavanger—Amsterdam.. In 1987 the Transport Division and the Liner Division merged into DFDS Transport. The new division soon expanded, first in Sweden and subsequently acquired several forwarding companies, e.g. in England and the Netherlands. In 1988 it was decided to use Scandinavian Seaways for the DFDS passenger operations as a whole. The Nineties In 1989-1990 the tonnage on the Oslo—Copenhagen route was renewed with the entering into service in June 1990 of QUEEN OF SCANDINAVIA, a ship with a capacity of 2,000 passengers and 400 cars. QUEEN was followed by CROWN OF SCANDINAVIA, with a similar capacity, in 1994. In 1999, DFDS took over Dan Transport Holding A/S, including the Dan Transport Travel Bureau and Canal Tours Copenhagen. However, 17 months later the whole transport division, named DFDS Dan Transport Group A/S, was sold to transport group DSV, and the focus was once again on the former core business activities: ro-ro liner traffic and passenger shipping on overnight routes. As of 2000 In June 2001 the deal to acquire a 76.36 per cent shareholding in the Lithuanian shipping company LISCO was finalized. Lys-Line Rederi AS and Lys-Line AS were taken over 100 per cent by DFDS in 2005. In August 2005 DFDS purchased 66 per cent of the trailer forwarding company Halléns NV in Belgium. In 2006 DFDS acquired the container shipping company Norfolk Line Containers BV. In 2010, DFDS purchased Norfolkline from Maersk.〔(Dfds Creates Northern Europe'S Leading Sea-Based Transport Network )〕 In 2010, DFDS sold DFDS Canal Tours, because it was not regarded as a core activity. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「DFDS」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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