Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard.
Ernest Frank Guelph Cox (1883–1959) was a British engineer, with knowledge in electrical and mechanical engineering, which he notably deployed in marine salvage. Between 1924 and 1931 his Cox & Danks Shipbreaking Co. successfully raised 35 ships of the German Imperial Navy High Seas Fleet that had been scuttled at Gutter Sound, Scapa Flow, in 1919. A tough but caring employer, after a series of fatalities and accidents to his employees, Cox sold his marine salvaging business to the Alloa Shipbreaking Company in 1932. He remained a consultant to the British Admiralty throughout his remaining career, and retired in the early 1950s after selling his profitable scrap metal business to Metal Industries Group.
Ship-breaking is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships either as a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extraction of raw materials, chiefly scrap. Modern ships have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years before corrosion, metal fatigue and a lack of parts render them uneconomical to operate. Ship-breaking allows the materials from the ship, especially steel, to be recycled and made into new products. This lowers the demand for mined iron ore and reduces energy use in the steelmaking process. Fixtures and other equipment on board the vessels can also be reused. While ship-breaking is sustainable, there are concerns about its use by poorer countries without stringent environmental legislation. It is also labour-intensive, and considered one of the world's most dangerous industries.
HMAS Derwent, named for the Derwent River, was a River-class destroyer escort of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was laid down by Williamstown Naval Dockyard in 1959, and commissioned into the RAN in 1964. During the ship's career, she was deployed to South East Asia on 23 occasions, including operations during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, and escort of the troopship HMAS Sydney to and from the Vietnam War. Multiple flag-showing cruises were also embarked upon, with port visits throughout Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. Derwent was also briefly used to portray a fictional vessel for the British drama series Warship.
MS Holiday was a Holiday-class cruise ship, which was formerly owned by Carnival Cruise Line as the Holiday and Ibero Cruises as the Grand Holiday. She last sailed for Cruise & Maritime Voyages from Spring 2015 to 2020 as the Magellan until Cruise & Maritime Voyages ceased operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was then sold at auction and was scrapped at Alang, India in early 2021.
Gadani is a coastal town of Hub District located in the southern part of Balochistan along the Arabian Sea, Pakistan. and is just a 1-hour drive away from Karachi. The population of Gadani was estimated to be around 10,000 in 2005. More than 97% of the population is Muslim with a small Hindu minority. The majority of the population speaks Balochi, Brahui languages and there is a small Lasi speaking minority. They belong to the Sanghur, Kurd, Sajdi, Muhammad Hasni, Gurginari and Bezinjo tribes.
Over 1400 ships have been wrecked on the coast of Western Australia. This relatively large number of shipwrecks is due to a number of factors, including:
Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world's third largest ship breaking yard located across a 10 km (6.2 mi) long beachfront at Gadani, Pakistan. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots. It is located about 40 km (25 mi) northwest of Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan.
SS Independence was an American built passenger liner, which entered service in February 1951 for American Export Lines. Originally, she plied a New York-Mediterranean route, specializing in a high-end clientele, sailing one way while her sister ship, SS Constitution, plied the route the opposite. Starting in 1980 she sailed as a cruise ship. She was shortly joined by her similarly graceful counter sterned sibling, the pair sharing the Hawaiian islands together for the better part of two decades until their retirements.
HMAS Stalwart was an Australian-designed and constructed Escort Maintenance ship of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Commissioned on 9 February 1968 and decommissioned on 9 March 1990, Stalwart served as a destroyer tender, the RAN flagship, and a training vessel during her career. She was sold in 1993 for conversion into a short-range cruise ship, under the names MV Her Majesty M, then MV Tara II. The vessel did not enter civilian service before she was broken up for scrap in 2003.
SMS Karlsruhe was a light cruiser of the Königsberg class, built for the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I. She was named after the earlier Karlsruhe, which had sunk in November 1914, from an accidental explosion. The new cruiser was laid down in 1914 at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Kiel, launched in January 1916, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in November 1916. Armed with eight 15 cm SK L/45 guns, the ship had a top speed of 27.5 kn.
The Belorussiya-class was a class of cruiseferries that were built by Wärtsilä Turku Shipyard, Finland in 1975–1976 for the Black Sea Shipping Company, Soviet Union. The five ships in the class were originally used in cruiseferry service around the Black Sea. During the 1980s all ships in the class were rebuilt into cruise ships. During the end of the 1990s all ships in the class were sold to other operators. The remaining ships in this class ended service in 2020. All ships as of 2022 have been scrapped except for the Enchanted Capri, which was shipwrecked on the Gulf coast of Mexico and only has partially been dismantled.
Rainbow Warrior was a three-masted schooner most notable for service with the environmental protection organization Greenpeace. She was built to replace the original Rainbow Warrior that the French intelligence service (DGSE) bombed in 1985 in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand, which sank the ship and killed photographer Fernando Pereira.
Shortly after the end of the First World War, the Imperial German Navy was scuttled by its sailors while held off the harbour of the British Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The High Seas Fleet was interned there under the terms of the Armistice while negotiations took place over the fate of the ships. Fearing that either the British would seize the ships unilaterally or the German government at the time might reject the Treaty of Versailles and resume the war effort, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter decided to scuttle the fleet.
Blue Star Maritime S.A., operating under the brand name Blue Star Ferries, is a Greece-based company founded in 1993 which provides ferry services between the Greek mainland and the Aegean Islands.
Products made from a variety of materials can be recycled using a number of processes.
Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard is located in Faujdarhat, Sitakunda Upazila, Bangladesh along the 18 kilometres (11 mi) Sitakunda coastal strip, 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-west of Chittagong. Handling about a fifth of the world's total, it was the world's largest ship breaking yard, until that record was taken by Alang in India. It employs over 200,000 Bangladeshis, and accounts for around one-half of all the steel in Bangladesh.
The Celebration was a cruise ship originally built for Carnival Cruise Line. She was the last of three ships to be built in Carnival's Holiday Class of cruise ships. She last sailed for Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line between 2015 and 2020.
The Alang Ship Breaking Yard is claimed to be the world's largest ship breaking yard, responsible for dismantling a significant number of retired freight and cargo ships salvaged from around the world. It is located on the Gulf of Khambhat by the town of Alang, in the district of Bhavnagar in the state of Gujarat, India.
