An emotional two-page statement from the Nordstrom & Thulin AB, or N&T, shipping company's board quoted managing director Ronald Bergman as saying: "Against the background of the events, we have concluded that we cannot carry on conducting passenger ferry operations to Estonia."
N&T owns half the capital in joint-venture company Estline, which links Stockholm and Tallinn with the Estonian Shipping Company. The two owned the 15,500-ton Estonia equally.
"We have informed our Estonian partner of our decision. It is our ambition to find a solution which will secure continued communications between Sweden and Estonia and the jobs of our colleagues," the statement added.
"I am deeply shaken by the incomprehensible accident that struck the passengers and crew of the Estonia. An event which no one thought was possible has happened," Bergman said.
More than 1,000 people were on board the ferry when it sank last Wednesday off southwest Finland and, according to the latest tally, only 138 survived in what Bergman called "the biggest shipping catastrophe to hit Europe since World War II."
The ship's 60-ton bow door, which makes up the entire front upper section of the ship, fell off, causing water to flood onto its cavernous car deck and capsizing it.
Bergman pledged the company would do its best to ensure minimum bureaucratic difficulties for dependents of victims and apologized for the way the company had handled information during the first day after the sinking.
Swedish business media have been strongly critical of the company's information behavior in the first 48 hours after the sinking, with two heavyweight financial periodicals slamming Bergstrom in editorials and lead articles this week.
"Some of the statements from our side have ... been experienced as insulting, even if that was never our intention," Bergstrom said.
"What has happened cannot be undone, but that which has been said may perhaps be forgotten. Let me say sorry, from the bottom of my heart."
Bergstrom also asked for understanding from the Estonians in the light of N&T's pullout decision, saying: "I hope and pray that our Estonian friends will understand the reasons why we ... cannot go on." As well as its Estline stake, N&T operates freight and passenger ferries on a short route to the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. It said it had decided also to give up this traffic when its franchise runs out at the end of 1997.
The company is mainly engaged in international bulk oil shipping, however, and only entered the ferry market in the 1980s as a diversification.
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