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Stena Baltica

ship built in 2005

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ6718229 ↗
Source-derived summary

MS Stena Baltica is a RoPax ferry, owned by Stena Line and operates on the Baltic Sea between Nynäshamn, Sweden and Ventspils, Latvia. The ship previously operated on the Irish Sea, between Birkenhead and Belfast, as Stena Mersey.

The ship was built in Italy by Cantiere Navale Visentini and launched in 2005. As built, the vessel measured 26,500 gross tonnage (GT) and could carry up to 980 passengers. The on-board cabins had space to sleep 480 passengers. There are four vehicle decks with a capacity for approximately 200 trailers. The vessels maximum speed is 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph), but usually sails at 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) in normal service.

History

Stena Baltica was launched in December 2005 as Mersey Viking, entering service with Norse Merchant Ferries later the same month. A few months later, Norse Merchant Ferries was acquired by Norfolkline. Mersey Viking received Norfolkline lettering on her red hull but retained her Norse Merchant Ferries funnel for several years.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Stena Baltica” is ship built in 2005. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Stena, Baltica and ship, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2005. For this dossier, Stena, Baltica and ship is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “ship built in 2005” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6718229. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stena Baltica”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stena Baltica primary sources, Stena Baltica archive and Stena research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stena Baltica”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Stena Baltica” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.