Rare John Bull Posted March 2, 2021 #1 Share Posted March 2, 2021 (edited) Formerly of Cruise & Maritime's fleet, Magellan & Marco Polo have ended up on an Indian beach scrapyard. Two buyers who bought the ships on the express condition that in order to be allowed to leave UK waters they would continue to trade. But neither buyer could find anyone to take them on, so reluctantly 🙄 they had to go for scrap. And the buyers doubled their money. Wicked. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56196069 JB 😟 Edited March 2, 2021 by John Bull 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi13 Posted March 2, 2021 #2 Share Posted March 2, 2021 15 hours ago, John Bull said: Formerly of Cruise & Maritime's fleet, Magellan & Marco Polo have ended up on an Indian beach scrapyard. Two buyers who bought the ships on the express condition that in order to be allowed to leave UK waters they would continue to trade. But neither buyer could find anyone to take them on, so reluctantly 🙄 they had to go for scrap. And the buyers doubled their money. Wicked. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56196069 JB 😟 JB - the ships of this vintage are full of asbestos (hopefully encapulated) and other hazardous wastes. When running a shipyard we have found asbestos in ships built even in the late 80's/early 90's and I have no doubt some new ships built in China, still have some asbestos. The movement of Hazardous Wastes Convention prohibited signatories from scrapping ships at non-approved yards. Before I retired 8 yrs ago, Alang, or any of the other yards/beaches in India/Bangladesh were not approved facilities. Therefore, since the early 2000's, we have been unable to scrap ships directly, unless the work is completed in an approved yard. When compling with Health & Safety, the scrapping cost is higher than the valvue of the materials. Consequently, shipowners in developed countries prefer to sell older ships for further trade. When my last company sold old tonnage, even getting 250K was a bonus, as it would have cost a fortune to scrap them. It may seem that the CMV liquidators lost money, as the new owners doubled their money, but had they scaped the ships directly, it would actually have cost them money. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare John Bull Posted March 2, 2021 Author #3 Share Posted March 2, 2021 4 hours ago, Heidi13 said: JB - the ships of this vintage are full of asbestos (hopefully encapulated) and other hazardous wastes. When running a shipyard we have found asbestos in ships built even in the late 80's/early 90's and I have no doubt some new ships built in China, still have some asbestos. The movement of Hazardous Wastes Convention prohibited signatories from scrapping ships at non-approved yards. Before I retired 8 yrs ago, Alang, or any of the other yards/beaches in India/Bangladesh were not approved facilities. Therefore, since the early 2000's, we have been unable to scrap ships directly, unless the work is completed in an approved yard. When compling with Health & Safety, the scrapping cost is higher than the valvue of the materials. Consequently, shipowners in developed countries prefer to sell older ships for further trade. When my last company sold old tonnage, even getting 250K was a bonus, as it would have cost a fortune to scrap them. It may seem that the CMV liquidators lost money, as the new owners doubled their money, but had they scaped the ships directly, it would actually have cost them money. Right', Heidi. Problem is that because of the asbestos etc the ship would not have been permitted to leave UK waters to be scrapped unless it was to a country with safeguards similar to the UK - particularly to a place like India, where safe breaking up was never going to happen. As per the news item, 400 ship salvage workers lives lost there since 2009. The buyers were never going to extend the lives of those ships, they were ruses to get the ships onto the high seas. Bought at auction with that condition for £2million, moved on to the Indian breakers without that condition £4million. So obvious. 😡 JB ☹️ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
navybankerteacher Posted March 7, 2021 #4 Share Posted March 7, 2021 On 3/2/2021 at 4:44 PM, John Bull said: Right', Heidi. Problem is that because of the asbestos etc the ship would not have been permitted to leave UK waters to be scrapped unless it was to a country with safeguards similar to the UK - particularly to a place like India, where safe breaking up was never going to happen. As per the news item, 400 ship salvage workers lives lost there since 2009. The buyers were never going to extend the lives of those ships, they were ruses to get the ships onto the high seas. Bought at auction with that condition for £2million, moved on to the Indian breakers without that condition £4million. So obvious. 😡 JB ☹️ Damn sad end for the ship (Marco Polo) which took me from Istanbul to Athens - via the ruins of Troy, Ephesus, Knossos, Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes. Hell!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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