Prior to 2020 unless you're a maritime
history buff you probably didn't think too much about
what happened to a cruise ship when it retired from service.
Decades of growth in the industry has kept cruise ships in service for
unprecedented lengths of time, with most of the focus on fancy new
ships rather than the ageing cruise ships at the end of their career.
But this year everything has changed and we've seen
numerous popular cruise ships making unexpected final journeys
to the scrapyard. I'm Chris Frame and today
we're going to be looking at ship recycling. [MUSIC] Ships have been scrapped and recycled
for about as long as ships have existed, and just like building demolition on
land - or aircraft demolition which we've seen quite a lot of this year -
it can be a very dangerous process and requires skill to be successfully
undertaken. Scrapping a ship allows materials such
as steel, aluminium, glass and the like to be
extracted, reused and repurposed. This has led to
terms like 'it's being turned into razor blades'
to become a common slang for a ship that's headed 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For the most part, ships are withdrawn from service as newer vessels come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 the scrapyard
and this includes some of the most famous ships that the world has ever
seen! In the 1930s Cunard's record-breaking
express liner Mauretania, holder of the transatlantic speed record
from 1909 to 1929, was scrapped - as was the White Star Line's Olympic, sister of the ill-fated Titanic and
heralded in 1911 as being the largest and most luxurious
liner in the world! The french liner Libertè, formerly Norddeutscher Lloyd's record-breaking Europa was scrapped in the 1960s, so too was
Britannic II, the last White Star Liner in service, and
even ships that had proudly served their nations in world wars
ended up in the scrapyards. Perhaps the most notable example of this was
Cunard's Aquitania which served proudly in both
World War I and World War II yet in 1950 she was scrapped at a yard
in Scotland. In the 1960s as jet aircraft made
passenger ships obsolete, many ocean liners were sent to the
scrapyard for dismantling. This includes P&O's Orcades, Oronsay and
Orsova. As well as many ships of the Union Castle Line, French Line and Cunard Line. 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 that we've experienced over the past few decades.
This isn't to say that ships haven't been broken up during this time,
with some pretty notable ships having been sent to scrap.
This includes the SS. Norway the Pacific Princess
better known as 'The Love Boat' and also other ships that were famous in local
waters such as P&O's Pacific Sky, all ending up in scrap yards over the
last few decades. But for many cruise ships the growth of
cruising has extended their service life ships that were designed as premier
liners for big brands such as Carnival Cruise Lines
Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises have found second lives -
and sometimes even third or fourth lives - with smaller brands such as Pullmantur,
CMV and even Fred Olsen. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the
growth of cruising to a grinding halt, with most of the world's cruise ships
currently in a state of 'warm layup' in oceans around the world -
you can check out my video about the ships in warm layup
at the moment in the info card or in the description below.
This has led to some cruise lines such as Pullmantur and CMV
ending operations, while other brands such as Carnival,
Costa, P&O and Holland America have been forced to reduce their fleet
in an attempt to stem the losses. While some ships including Holland America's
Amsterdam and Rotterdam have been sold for future use as cruise
ships, others have been less lucky. Costa Victoria, Carnival Fantasy, Carnival
Inspiration and Pullamntur'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.
Generally when a ship is sold for scrap it is formally withdrawn from passenger
service and the ship is prepared for the final
voyage of the scrapyard. This process often includes removing valuable items
from onboard the ship in a process known as de-storing. In days
gone by this was often an orderly and well
planned out process - a good example being in 1997 when the
P&O liner Canberra was withdrawn from service.
Alongside in sSouthampton the ship was de-stored with items such as valuable P&O
memorabilia, artworks, signage and other on-board
trinkets of particular value removed from the ship. It might surprise
you though that the majority of things that are on board the ship when it's
withdrawn from service go with the ship to the scrapyard; this
includes all sorts of things from beds to dining tables to chairs to
lounges, lighting and carpets all left on board
and either unsold or recycled by the scrapyard.
Sometimes entire sections of a ship can be saved during the scrapping process
and used again. This was certainly the case with White Star Line's Olympic
where paneling, ceiling decoration and other fixtures from the ship's interior
were reused at the White Swan Hotel in England - while other parts of the
interior can be found on display at the Sea City
Museum in Southampton. While ships like Canberra, Big Red Boat II,
Carnival Fantasy, Carnival Inspiration, Sovereign and Monarch
sailed to the scrapyard wearing their original name and livery,
in some cases ships bound for the scrapyard may be renamed and de-branded
for their final voyage. For example the SS. Norway was renamed
before she made her final journey to the beaches of Alang in India. While
the current media attention on scrapping ships has shown some dramatic footage of
large cruise ships being driven up onto the beaches under their own power,
this form of scrapping isn't always the way it's done!
Norway for example was taken under tow owing to her engines being unserviceable
after an onboard 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. Sometimes the scrapping process
commences while the ship is still in the water,
as was the case with the Olympic which had its superstructure dismantled in
Jarrow, England, while the hull was towed to Scotland for
final dismantling. Scrapping a ship on site is also an
option to remove the damaged or sunken ship,
where re-floating it and towing it away is not an option. A well-known example of
this is the former ocean liner Queen Elizabeth
that caught fire in 1972 and sunk in Hong Kong harbour
while being converted into a floating university. Between 1974
and 1975 parts of the ship were scrapped on site.
The precise scrapping process differs depending on the ship and the scrapyard
where it is being dismantled. Some ships are harder to scrap than
others which can make the process very drawn out,
as was the case with Canberra. Some scrapyards will commence the process
with a ceremonial cutting of the bow, which we've seen recently on board the
monarch in Turkey. This also happened with Norway at Alang,
and the tip of her bow has been preserved in Paris as a monument to her
original career as the SS. France. The concept of recycling a ship isn't
just limited to the entire scrapping of a vessel; in fact
many ships are given large-scale refurbishments which
produce a lot of scrap metal and this metal is recycled for further use.
A good example of this is QE2, which between 1986
and 1987 was converted from steam power to diesel electric. The re-engineering
process resulted in 4,700 tons of scrap including the ship's
original steam turbines, boilers and even the propellers. One of those
propellers was actually directly recycled
into sets of golf clubs! When the ship returned to service these golf clubs
were brought on board and sold in the gift shop
at a premium! Another thing to note is that during the refurbishment process
many items on board a ship are replaced. Collectors can purchase items from the
scrapyard if a ship is being completely scrapped,
or from the shipyard if a ship is being refurbished. Some of these items do make
their way back into museums which gives us a glimpse into how ships
looked during various periods of their careers.
In rare cases some passenger ships are preserved for the long term.
Notable examples of large preserved passenger ships include the SS. Rotterdam
the RMS Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth 2,
all of which have been converted into floating hotels and museums.
This is definitely the exception to the rule and as I mentioned before
most passenger ships that have existed have ended up being scrapped.
In fact there are more Pyramids that you can visit today than there are
original preserved ocean liners! Preserving your ship in a stationary
manner is an expensive process and requires a great deal of insight and
funds to make it a successful venture. Even in these cases the ships are often
refurbished with original items being removed from
the ship unsold, recycled and in some cases scrapped. A
good example is the RMS. Queen Mary. When she was converted into a hotel ship
her original funnels were removed from the ship
and new ones were put in their place. The metal from those original funnels was
recycled and scrapped. I hope this video gave you some insight
as to how and why ships are scrapped. If you found the video interesting
please give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe and hit the
notification bell so you don't miss future videos.
I would like to send out a huge thank you to Peter Kengo
of www.midshipcentury.com - Peter is one of the
most knowledgeable people when it comes to the topic of scrapping ships
and he has a fantastic series of DVDs as well as an informative website which you
can find in the link in the description below. I'd
also like to send my thanks to Andrew Sassoli-Walker a Southampton
based photographer who provides me with access to his
fantastic imagery of cruise ships based in Southampton,
and also my thanks to Rob Henderson and Doug Cremer,
for access to their fantastic Henderson and Cremer collection.
I've linked to both in the description below if you're interested in what else
is happening in the cruising world at the moment.
Check out my cruise news playlist or if you're more interested in maritime
history and the great stories of ocean liners of days gone by
take a look at my maritime history playlist. Thanks again for watching and
until next time I hope to see you onboard. [Cheerful Outro Music]
