In the summer of 2018 I sailed on the M/V Columbus, of the British line Cruise and Maritime Voyages (CMV). It was a beautiful ship, here are some pictures of her in those happier days:
As I said, a beautiful ship in her prime. It was an enjoyable cruise from Amsterdam to Gibraltar to the Canaries to Madeira to Lisbon to London. Two weeks, as I recall.
Well, she's not so beautiful these days. Here's what she's looked like more recently, after being sent to a scrap yard in India after CMV went under because of the 'rona:
Ship and aircraft boneyards seem like such a waste to me.
Looks like they are being scrapped to reuse the steel. What would you have them do with no-longer needed vessels/aircraft?
ReplyDeleteI get the idea of ship boneyards just like I get the idea of human graveyards. They both serve a purpose, even if they make me sad.
ReplyDeleteYou were just on it 5 years ago! The cruise market had a rough time, but there must be a system to sell used cruise ships. Maybe there is a Ship Trader, like Cycle Trader or RV Trader where they posted it for sale, as is, and didn't get any bites.
ReplyDeleteIt just seems like a huge loss of value and utility to scrap it out.
The airplane boneyards are interesting. I'd love to go for a self-guided tour with my angle grinder and pickup truck. I'm not sure what souvenirs I'd end up with, but the truck would be loaded.
Failed presidential candidate, George McGovern, wrote a book about his time in World War II as a B-24 pilot. It was an interesting read, and in it, he mentioned that after the war, thousands of B-24's were just chopped up and scrapped. Such a waste, but unlike the DC-3, there just didn't seem to be any point in sending them to the boneyard.
Many cruise ships are scrapped each year, often in Turkey or India. I can't imagine how it can cost so much to build them and then scrap them after only 20 years, do they make *so* much money on cruising?
ReplyDeleteI wish there were a more economical use for them than just scrapping them.