Today we’re going to take a look at ship recycling. It may surprise you to learn that most of history’s passenger ships have ended their days at the hand of the cutters torch - including many of the most famous ships that ever set sail.
Ships have ended their days at scrap yards for about as long as ships have been around. Scrapping a ship can be a dangerous activity that requires skill and experience to be carried out successfully.
It allows materials such as steel, aluminium, glass and the like, to be extracted, reused and repurposed. This has led to terms like “it’s been turned into razor blades” becoming common slang for the fate of a ship heading to scrap.
For the most part, ships are withdrawn from service as newer vessels come online to replace them. This is a gradual process - with some ships being retained longer than others due to high demand, or delays in the construction of their replacements.
Most ships that have existed have ended their days in a scrapyard. This includes some of the most famous passenger liners of all time.
While scrap is a common fate for most ships, in recent years cruise ships have been kept in service for longer and longer - thanks to the unprecedented global cruising boom experienced over the past few decades.
This isn’t to say cruise ships haven’t been broken up during this time, with older vessels such as SS Norway - the former Pacific Princess “Love Boat” and the former P&O Pacific Sky all being scrapped over the last two decades.
Costa Victoria, Carnival Fantasy, Carnival Inspiration and Pullmantur’s Sovereign and Monarch have all been sold for scrap in recent months, with the latter four vessels all heading to the same Turkish scrapyard.
It might surprise you though that the majority of the things on board the ship, such as dining tables and chairs, beds, lighting and carpets are left aboard and either on-sold or recycled by the scrap yard.
While ships like Canberra, Big Red Boat II, Carnival Fantasy, Carnival Inspiration, Sovereign and Monarch sailed to scrap wearing their original name and livery, in some cases ships bound for the scrap yard may be renamed and de-branded before their final voyage.
For example, the SS Norway was renamed Blue Lady before she made her final journey to Alang. Norwegian Cruise Line branding was removed from the ship in advance of her final voyage.
While the media attention has been grabbed with dramatic footage of cruise ships being driven up onto the beach under their own power - this is not always the case. Norway, for example, was taken under tow owing to her engines being unserviceable after an on board explosion - which was actually the cause of her exit from service.
More recently this was seen with the Costa Concordia. Having been partially re-floated, the ship was towed to Genoa in Italy where she was dismantled.
Some ships are harder to scrap than others, which can make the process very drawn out, as was the case with the Canberra. Some yards will commence the process with a ceremonial ‘cutting off the bow’, which we’ve seen occur on the Monarch in Turkey.
My thanks to:
Peter Knego / midshipcentury.com for remarkable video footage used in this video of the ships being scrapped at Alang. Peter has videos including “The Sands of Alang” which you can check out: midshipcentury.com/
Andrew Sassoi-Walker www.solentphotographer.com/
- Andrew is without doubt one of the finest photographer of cruise ships and aircraft!
Rob Henderson & Doug Cremer for access to the Henderson & Cremer Collection.
J. Frame & Vicki Cross for photographs.
Others:
Ref 1: Sovereign - Piergiuliano Chesi - CC BY 3.0 bit.ly/34jnt81
Ref 2: Olympic & Mauretania - Public Domain bit.ly/3hkDgaC
Ref 3: Libertè being Scrapped - Public Domain / Gerhard Mueller-Debus bit.ly/2FCGnfS
Ref 4: Stirling Castle - Phyllis Flannagan - CC BY SA 2.0 bit.ly/2CM2aAR
Ref 5: Sovereign - Piergiuliano Chesi - CC BY 3.0 bit.ly/3giBUvq
Ref 6: Carnival Fantasy - Boris Kasimov - CC BY 2.0 bit.ly/2QaRzSS
Ref 7: White Swan Hotel - CC BY SA 4.0 bit.ly/31gcwlS
Ref 8: SS Norway - Photography.np - CC BY SA 3.0 bit.ly/3j4Wvp3
Ref 9: Blue Lady - AKS1189 - CC BY SA 3.0 bit.ly/3geAOAP
Ref 10: Costa Concordia - Soerfm - CC BY SA 3.0 bit.ly/34k7hDN
Ref 11: Costa Concordia - G. Jenewein - CC BY SA 4.0 bit.ly/3aM0fZm
Ref 12: Seawise University - GC9580 - CC BY SA 3.0 bit.ly/2Ynxxct
Ref 13: Seawise University - Barry Loigman, M.D
- CC BY SA 2.5 bit.ly/31foDiW
Ref 14: SS France Bow - Myrabella - CC BY SA 3.0 bit.ly/34jfF6l
Ref 15: QE2 Original Funnel - Dashers - CC BY SA 3.0 bit.ly/2EfAmFz
Ref 16: Queen Mary Hotel - David Jones - CC BY 2.0 bit.ly/2EqCrys
Thumbnail:
Recycling Logo: Julieta Felix / CC by Attribution / Adobe Spark.
Pic Grab From Peter Knego Video.
#cruisenews #cruiseship #shipscrap
14 июн 2024
