It means like a nice greeting

Seven Hurtigruten ships flew in the new year. Not all the inhabitants of the city appreciated it equally.

During Christmas the port of Bergen was filled with Hurtigruten ships.

On New Year’s Eve, six ships lined up from Bontelabo to Bryggen, and a seventh ship at the Hurtigruten terminal in Nøstet.

The villagers heard this at the beginning of the new year, when the boats whistled in unison.

– Ren terror

For many, however, it was too good.

In a debate post, city council member and dog owner Henning Warloe writes that the horn lasted for over an hour and was so loud it drowned out fireworks.

– The continuous cacophony of Hurtigruten ship whistles for over an hour (!) Before and after midnight this New Year’s Eve was sheer terror, Warloe writes in the post.

– Took a couple long whistles

In Bontelabo, MS «Nordlys» was on New Year’s Eve.

Captain Tommy Eliassen says the ship made a couple of long whistles around midnight.

– There were a lot of ships in the harbor, both Hurtigruten and other ships like supply ships, and I think most of them whistled around midnight, he says.

Have fun on deck

Eliassen says Hurtigruten ships generally dock on New Year’s Eve, and that the whistle at midnight has become a tradition to mark the turn of the year.

– There will be some noise and din on New Years Eve, and we usually whistle around midnight, he says.

The captain understands that some people think there was too much noise in Vågen.

– We always whistle on arrival and departure, something that people expect. But I can understand some people reacting to the fact that there was a lot of noise on New Years Eve so we have to accept that criticism.

Eliassen says that you should avoid whistling unnecessarily.

– We participated in the whistle when the clock struck twelve. We had an orchestral space for the fireworks in the fjord and spent most of our time on deck to enjoy it, says the captain.

Unusually many ships in the harbor

Bergen Port Maritime Manager Christian Hafstad says the port guard was at Skoltegrunnskaien from midnight to about 1:30 on New Year’s Eve.

– The harbor guard did not consider it abnormal. It was a woman who called at 00.14 and complained about the hiss of the boats, she says.

Hafstad says there were an unusual number of ships in the harbor this New Year’s Eve.

– No wonder they beep at midnight. This year it lasted a bit longer, for reasons unknown. Maybe they were very happy to get rid of 2020, he says.

– Five minutes is enough

Hafstad says the port of Bergen is a so-called quiet port, where there shouldn’t be much noise from ships calling. This is to take into account the residents of the city, explains Hafstad.

– The whistle is there anyway on New Years Eve, but five minutes is enough. You can hear it well, he says.

In December the Hurtigruten ships whistled every day at 12 o’clock to mark that they were set by crown in Bergen.

– I have understood it in such a way that they have needed to show the outside world that it is the Hurtigruten ships, which are the coastal road number 1, that are here, he says.

According to BA, the boats stopped whistling after a complaint from a Nordnes neighbor.

Meaning as a greeting

Hurtigruten press officer Terje Kramviken responds to the criticism in an email to BT.

– This was intended as a nice greeting to the maritime city of Bergen on New Years Eve at the end of the anniversary year. We see that many appreciated it, while others think it was a bit too much, Kramviken writes.

Furthermore, he writes that Hurtigruten will continue the tradition of welcoming the new year with the whistles of the ship.

– But it is rare that we have seven ships in the same city, so Bergen will probably have a quieter entrance until 2022, he writes.