Hopefully the following news will bring back some smiles and memories of good times.

A private effort was started in the summer of 2008, to bring back items from GTS Finnjet. The secretive fittings container arrived safely in Finland during march of 2009. These items have truly gone to hell and have come back slightly battered, moldy and dirty. They will be brought back to life in a professional manner one by one. It will be slow going.  

The table in the middle is one of two refurbished items and has been priced aggressively at 250€. More of these Commodore Class glass/brass tables are looking for a new home.

More information on how you can own a part of history will come shortly.

News from Finnlines regarding our cruise:

As compensation for the route change to Rostock, we offer your group the following:

Free transportation to the center of Rostock. A two-hour guided city tour on foot, after which the guide will take you to the Christmas market in Rostock. Free transportation to the ship will depart later from the market.

Further information of the Christmas market can be read at

http://www.rostocker-weihnachtsmarkt.de/englisch/index.php

Thank you Finnlines!

Finnlines has issued new timetables and these conflict with our cruise. Our original cruise was meant to be:

HEL-GDY-TRA-GDY-HEL

We were then able to add a special pre-cruise, so our members in Germany could share one part of the journey with the members who depart from Finland.

The complete long cruise was meant to be:

TRA-GDY-HEL-GDY-TRA-GDY-HEL

The new timetable of Finnlines issued on 11.NOV.09 indicates a change in destination:

TRA-GDY-HEL-GDY-ROS-GDY-HEL

This would mean that our friends who start out in Travemünde, would have to leave the ship in Rostock! We in Finland, we won't see Travemünde at all, the nostalgic and purposefully chosen destination of our cruise.

I do not know what to say now. Perhaps some profuse cursing? My apologies good people. We have now two cancellations and I won't be offended if everyone just cancels. You certainly are entitled to do just that.

Our event organiser will try to push for some form of compensation to those brave who wish to see East-Germany.

Tallink Silja GmbH has sent some very friendly first greetings to the society. While many of our members know or even own these books, now these classics of Finnjet can be found in the archives of the society. It is our intent and hope for the archive to outlast any private collection to the very end of time.

We thank Tallink Silja GmbH for supporting our efforts and we thank our member Mr Brech for being our spokesperson.

Let's see what treasures still lay hidden in Germany. While we are on this topic, I'd like to remind donors, that we not only collect beautiful photographs. We also collect old receipts, invoices, contracts, drafts, reports, offers and everything related to our ship. The main goal is to record one vessel in a high level of detail for future generations to enjoy, and to enable research and analysis of our time and magnificent ship.

Our website, a mere window to our society, shows some examples of what we record. Secret or potentially damaging documents will continue to remain classified in our archives with restricted access. If you do send us such materials, please add a writing with the materials to ensure that your wishes will be followed precisely.

I hope that you will help us in recording a very special period of history. We won't go bankrupt, so the archives will never end up in the trash, which is unfortunately something that does happen to private and public companies.

Die bevorstehende Dezember Kreuzfahrt hat das Interesse unserer Mitglieder erweckt. Von Anfang an waren wir aber besorgt, dass sich unsere Mitglieder aus Deutschland und Mitteleuropa von der HEL– TRA– HEL Kreuzfahrt ein wenig ausgeschlossen fühlen würden.

Finnlines haben sich wiederum als Retter erwiesen und bieten dasselbe Package nun auch v.v. an (TRA– HEL–TRA), so dass alle Mitglieder die Helsinki – Travemünde Fahrt gemeinsam verbringen können.

Da das Schiff für einige Stunden in Travemünde im Hafen liegen wird, besteht für FHS-Mitglieder daneben auch die Möglichkeit, sich in Travemünde zu treffen.

Genauere Informationen zur TRA – HEL – TRA Kreuzfahrt können vom Redakteur unseres deutschsprachigen News Service unter >marcel.brech(at)kabelmail.de< erfragt werden.