At the time of her delivery, Finnjet was the fastest, longest and largest car ferry in the world, and the only one powered by gas turbines.

At the point of her scrapping in 2008, she remained the fastest conventional ferry in the world, with a recorded top speed of 33.5 knots (62.0 km/h; 38.6 mph).

[1][2] The ship was built specifically for the route between Helsinki in Finland and Travemünde in West Germany which Finnlines had previously trafficked with slower conventional ferries.

[1][2] The gas turbine engines combination gave a top speed of 31 knots (57 km/h),[8] a one-way crossing was planned to take only 22 hours for the ship.

At the time Travemünde was the closest port to Finland in mainland Western Europe, being located in the Federal German state of Schleswig-Holstein just west of the border with East Germany.

Partially due to being such a ground-breaking ship, Finnjet was also extremely prestigious, which helps explain why she remained in traffic on the Baltic Sea for such a long time even though she was often unprofitable.

[11] In the beginning of the 1970s a study was made about the future development of passenger numbers on the ferry service between Finland and West Germany.

Based on the estimates made Enso-Gutzeit, one of the owners of Finnlines, begun planning a new, larger and faster ferry for the service.

[12] On 5 December 1973 Enso-Gutzeit placed an order for project Finnjet with the Wärtsilä Hietalahti shipyard in Helsinki, Finland.

[12] At the time Finnlines and Finland Steamship Company were negotiating the formation of a joint subsidiary for their cargo-carrying operations.

[15] To ensure the success of Finnjet, Enso-Gutzeit and Finnlines were eager to induce Finland Steamship Company to withdraw from the Finland–West Germany passenger services completely.

[12][15] The construction of Finnjet was not without mishaps, as on 24 March 1976 a fire broke out in the bow thruster room but was quickly brought under control.

In January 1986 another major renovation was carried out at Wärtsilä Helsinki, with new Commodore-class cabins added in place of the old sundeck.

In 1991 an extremely large-scale reconstruction was planned, where the ship would have been lengthened by 20 metres (66 ft), cabins enlarged, a new outdoor swimming pool added, and much of the superstructure built to a sleeker appearance.

[20] A new transmission system installed in 1994 (again at HDW Kiel) raised the top speed to 33 knots (61 km/h) and allowed for a mixed operation of turbines and diesel engines.

Finnjet was amongst the ferries used to search for survivors on the disaster area but she had to leave soon when cars carried on her upper cardeck started moving in the heavy seas, creating another potentially dangerous situation.

In autumn of the same year the Finnish Institute of Marine Research installed new equipment for monitoring water quality and algae.

[8] In mid-May 2002, only a few days after Finnjet's 25th anniversary cruise, Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported the ship was for sale.

In April 2004, Finnjet called in to Helsinki for the last time, after which she left for another refit at Aker Finnyards Rauma shipyard in preparation for her new Saint Petersburg – Tallinn–Rostock route.

She was moored on the west bank of the Mississippi River across from Baton Rouge, at the base of the Horace Wilkinson Bridge during relief efforts.

On 16 January 2008 she was officially renamed Da Vinci, and sailed to the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, where she was to be rebuilt into a cruise ship.

[30] The ship's original builder in Helsinki offered assistance in reconditioning or converting the vessel to a new buyer's required standards.

Although partially beached, scrapping did not start immediately, when an international lobby group initiated by former Finnjet passenger Risto Kempas managed to negotiate a halt into the breaking at the Rishi Ship Breaker's facility.

[31] Several parties then searched for potential buyers and the work culminated into a Finnish ship operator sending a three-man team to inspect Finnjet during the August of that year.

The team discovered only loose items such as mattresses, fridges, television sets and furniture had been removed from the ship, along with some consoles in accordance to Indian laws.

[33] Finnjet's thick steel (Rautaruukki NVA-36) ice-strengthened hull with double bottom, excessively strong bulkheads and reinforced fire-proofed compartments[34] turned out to be a nightmare for the breaker.

The society holds the official documentation, operator's archive and complete sets of building plans to realized or planned-only Finnjet conversions.