Passenger traffic
Ferry service through the Sulkava village probably started in 1870, when a steamship of the Saima company, owned by businessmen from Vyborg, started operating between the cities Kuopio and Vyborg, transporting both goods and passengers. However, the shifts seem to have become regular only at the end of the 1870s, when the municipal assembly decided to build a new and “a more comfortable ship bridge” or ship pier in the village, pointing out to the start of regular shipping. For that purpose, shopkeeper Juho Vihavainen from Lautaniemi promised to give the space free of charge.
Since 1897, passenger traffic was already so busy that one could get to the directions of both Savonlinna and Mikkeli from Sulkava every day with the ships “Ansio” and “Aino” that operated between these two cities. The ships “Imatra” and “Savonlinna”, which sailed the Lappeenranta-Savonlinna route, also stopped in Sulkava coming and going. The ship’s arrival at the harbor was a special event.
The steamships were considered to have caused so much disturbance with their loud departure whistles, which frightened especially the horses, that in the summer of 1910, the municipal assembly decided, under the threat of a fine of 40 Finnish marks, to completely prohibit the departure signals by steam whistles in the village center for both passenger and cargo ships. Instead, it was suggested to switch to the ringing of a bell.
