List of ship decommissionings in 1981

The list of ship decommissionings in 1981 includes a chronological list of all ships decommissioned in 1981.

	Operator	Ship	Flag	Class and type	Fate	Other notes
February	Sessan Linjen	Prinsessan Desirée	Sweden	Ferry	Transferred to Stena Sessan Line
7 March	Royal Navy	Norfolk	United Kingdom	County-class destroyer	Sold to Chile	Renamed Capitán Prat
March	Unknown	Tor Scandinavia	Sweden	Cruiseferry	End of charter, returned to Tor Line
27 March	Royal Navy	Bulwark	United Kingdom	Centaur-class aircraft carrier	Towed to Cairnryan 10 April 1981	Scrapped in 1984[1]
30 April	Jakob Lines	Borea	Finland	Ferry	Chartered to Folkline
April	Stena Sessan Line	Prinsessan Desirée	Sweden	Ferry	Chartered to Bandi Line
6 May	Bandi Line	Prinsessan Desirée	Sweden	Ferry	End of charter from Stena Sessan Line	Re-chartered to B&I Line
13 May	Folkline	Borea	Finland	Ferry	End of charter; returned to Jakob Lines
15 May	Olau Line	Olau Finn	Finland	Ferry	Laid up at end of charter; sold to Folkline in May 1982	Renamed Folkliner
7 June	B&I Line	Prinsessan Desirée	Sweden	Ferry	End of charter from Stena Sessan Line	Re-chartered to Sealink
10 August	Sealink	Prinsessan Desirée	Sweden	Ferry	End of charter from Stena Sessan Line	Returned to Stena Sessan traffic
3 October	Jakob Lines	Borea	Finland	Ferry	Chartered as a housing ship to Algeria	Sold to Helsingfors Steamship Company, 1984
1 December	Tor Line	Tor Scandinavia	Sweden	Cruiseferry	Sold to DFDS Seaways
Date unknown	Polferries	Gryf	Poland	Ferry	Sold to Fraglines	Renamed Eolos