Shipbreaking Yards

Shipbreaker

A contractor who breaks up old ships for scrap.

‘It was towed up the River Thames from Sheerness in Kent to a ship-breaker’s yard in Rotherhithe, South London.’

Oxford Dictionary

1 Echoes of Ship Breaking

17 jul. 2014

 
The bothering heat and shouts of his Mukadam mingles with the echoes of machine and men usually 30 to 70 feet below him. He has to silence it all when he turns on his blow torch and focuses solely on weakening the structure of the very ship he stands on; right now he is working on the metal holdings around the mast. He stands away cautiously as the weakened mast is hooked on to a whinge and it’s pulled down. The bulking mast hits the bottom of the hull, the boom reaches his ears and touches his skin, it reminds him a little bit of his village, of his childhood, when he would drop a metal bucket in well to collect water. With no time for nostalgia he gets back to cutting another part of the hull, he does this every day for 8-10 hours; his safety net is his experience.
He is one of the 66,000 workers who work on the ship breaking yards at Alang in Gujarat and Darukhana in Mumbai. They migrate from UP, Orissa, Bihar and various other states across India in search of employment and better life. The job of these workers is to strip the raw materials from these ships and sell them to various integral industries i.e. construction, steel mills, to name a few.
The ship breaking industry as always been surrounded with myths and controversies. With many reports in the media mostly giving it a broad tag of “hazardous to environment” which is far from the truth, what ship-breaking actually does is reuse valuable raw materials striped from a dead ship, which would end up being more hazardous if left in the sea.
The primary pressing issue of ship breaking which gets skirted is its workers. The process of ship-breaking requires workers from the start to the end. Often to skirt costs; untrained contractual workers will be hired, safety equipment will be ignored and benefits will be skimmed.
In this documentary ‘Echoes of Ship-Breaking’ we’ll be entering through the backdoor of the ship-breaking industry to see:
• How the industry processes labour and ships
• How ships are brought in and labourers are hired, and how it starts
• The industry’s questionable history regarding worker laws
• Why and how ship breaking reached India
• How ship breaking affects the environment
• Breaking down the process of ship-breaking in India
• Its contribution to India and the future of ship breaking in India

2 The Ship Breakers

28 aug. 2013

60 minutes segment from CBS on ship breakers in Banglasdesh

3 The Ship Breakers of Bangladesh: VICE INTL

9 feb. 2015

There aren’t too many places left in the world where the practice of ship breaking—scrapping old ships for metal—can still exist. These days, environmental and labor regulations in the developed world have displaced the practice to India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, where cargo carriers are salvaged for their steel. 
 
The largest vessels wind up on the shores of the city of Chittagong in Bangladesh, where the industry has become a vital part of the country’s urbanization. It employs roughly 200,000 workers and supplies the country with 80 percent of its steel. Ship breakers beach and dismantle vessels daily wearing flip­-flops and T-shirts. It’s no easy task, considering ships are constructed to withstand the elements for the 30 years they spend operating on international waters. We decided to check it out.

4 Ship Breakers | Bangladesh

Back to menu      IMPORTANT CONTENT MUST BE SEEN: shocking

16 jul. 2013

Broadcast: 17 February 2013 on Sunday Night, Seven Network, Australia.

It’s one of the most jaw-dropping sights of the modern world. For as far as the eye can see, along a stretch of coastline in Bangladesh, hundreds of mammoth supertankers lie beached on the sand. This is where the world’s ships come to die. Tim joins the thousands of workers, some of them children, who are paid just 47 cents a day to break up these rusting giants with their bare hands.

AWARDS:
Winner: Walkley Award for Camerawork, Australia (2013)

CREW:
Reporter / Camera: Tim Noonan
Producer: Ali Russell
Sound: Dan Abbott
Editor: Jimmy Hamilton

5 The Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard | Journal Reportes

 
 

13 jun. 2015

 
Dangerous and Deadly Work: The Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard. A Report by Gönna Ketels. 

6 Echoes of Ship Breaking

 
 

17 jul. 2014

The bothering heat and shouts of his Mukadam mingles with the echoes of machine and men usually 30 to 70 feet below him. He has to silence it all when he turns on his blow torch and focuses solely on weakening the structure of the very ship he stands on; right now he is working on the metal holdings around the mast. He stands away cautiously as the weakened mast is hooked on to a whinge and it’s pulled down. The bulking mast hits the bottom of the hull, the boom reaches his ears and touches his skin, it reminds him a little bit of his village, of his childhood, when he would drop a metal bucket in well to collect water. With no time for nostalgia he gets back to cutting another part of the hull, he does this every day for 8-10 hours; his safety net is his experience.
He is one of the 66,000 workers who work on the ship breaking yards at Alang in Gujarat and Darukhana in Mumbai. They migrate from UP, Orissa, Bihar and various other states across India in search of employment and better life. The job of these workers is to strip the raw materials from these ships and sell them to various integral industries i.e. construction, steel mills, to name a few.
The ship breaking industry as always been surrounded with myths and controversies. With many reports in the media mostly giving it a broad tag of “hazardous to environment” which is far from the truth, what ship-breaking actually does is reuse valuable raw materials striped from a dead ship, which would end up being more hazardous if left in the sea.
The primary pressing issue of ship breaking which gets skirted is its workers. The process of ship-breaking requires workers from the start to the end. Often to skirt costs; untrained contractual workers will be hired, safety equipment will be ignored and benefits will be skimmed.
In this documentary ‘Echoes of Ship-Breaking’ we’ll be entering through the backdoor of the ship-breaking industry to see:
• How the industry processes labour and ships
• How ships are brought in and labourers are hired, and how it starts
• The industry’s questionable history regarding worker laws
• Why and how ship breaking reached India
• How ship breaking affects the environment
• Breaking down the process of ship-breaking in India
• Its contribution to India and the future of ship breaking in India

7 Shipbreakers

 
 
Back to menu          IMPORTANT CONTENT

21 jun. 2017

 
This feature documentary profiles a bustling Indian shantytown where 40,000 people live and work in the most primitive conditions.

8 Scrapped: the deadly business of dismantling ships in Bangladesh

 
 

13 mrt. 2015

Bangladesh has no metal resources of its own city, so the shipbreaking yards in Chittagong, its largest second city, generate high profits for their owners. Workers though, enjoy none of the benefits of that profit; wages are barely enough to live on and there are no health and safety regulations to protect them. Injuries are a frequent occurrence and even death is not uncommon.

9 Shipbreaking Bangladesh

 
 

4 jan. 2018

For our new magazine “Directions” we traveled to Chittagong for a social project. We wanted to do a documentation about shipbreaking. In one week we visited the shipbreaking yards, the villages of the workers, some different fishervillages and so much more… Just get a look and an experience how the people live there.
 
The Shipbreaking NGO’s:
– Chittagong http://ypsa.org/

10 The Wire Nest…life In Mumbai’s Shipbreaking Yards

 
 

24 jan. 2013

We all have heard of the Titanic, its love story, and how it laid to rest under the ocean. But for lesser ships there is a different grave waiting. One which is an obscure & lucrative business for a few known as Ship breaking, Countless numbers of used ships are sent to developing countries like China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Turkey where they are systematically broken down by the cheap labor hired by these ship breakers . ‘The Wire Nest…Life In Mumbai’s Ship-Breaking Yards’ is a documentary on the condition of these workers, the majority who live in filthy and hazardous circumstances .This documentary specifically gives an insight on the conditions of the ship breaking workers in Mumbai the city which is the hub for many activities known and unknown. To build awareness and give an insight on the deteriorating conditions of the workers. And the shocking lack of human consideration given to them. Take note as this time we go even deeper into the graveyard taking a closer glimpse into the hardships and tragedies these workers face, doing their job while constantly being under real mortal danger .The story of a family man, a lady who lost her family, a family who got compensation for their dead son, and the result of the workers strike for a fellow worker. A honest glimpse into the cogs that run the ship breaking industry.

11 An environmental disaster: The true cost of cheaply dismantling ships in India

 

27 jun. 2019

 
European ship owners are sending their decommissioned boats and oil rigs to giant scrapyards in India to be dismantled. Registering them in a foreign country ahead of their last journey means owners bypass a European law that requires them to clean their vessels of toxic chemicals before they’re demolished. The result is a dangerous environment both for workers and surrounding ecosystems. Our France 2 colleagues report, with FRANCE 24’s James Vasina.

12 How China Upended Life at India’s Ship-Recycling Yards

 
 

5 sep. 2016

At the world’s biggest ship-recycling yard at Alang, India, life is becoming harder as fewer ships arrive. Here’s why. Photo: Karan Deep Singh/The Wall Street Journal

13 Where Ships Go to Die, Workers Risk Everything | National Geographic

 
 

16 apr. 2014

In Bangladesh, men desperate for work perform one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. They demolish huge ships in grueling conditions, braving disease, pollution, and the threat of being crushed or stabbed by steel sliced from the hulls.
 
About National Geographic: National Geographic is the world’s premium destination for science, exploration, and adventure. Through their world-class scientists, photographers, journalists, and filmmakers, Nat Geo gets you closer to the stories that matter and past the edge of what’s possible.

14 Bangladesh 2013 Part 1

 
 

11 dec. 2015

Bangladesh is a friendly but frequently misunderstood country. It usually only gets a mention by western media when a disaster occurs. Few tourist go there, which is good for those that do, but not so for the Bangladesh economy. This is the first of a series of videos shot on a visit I made in January 2013. 
 
Part one starts with a visit to the spectacular and surreal ship breaking yards on the beach north of Chittagong. Hundreds of ships are dismantled here each year using mostly manual labour, very little mechanisation is employed. The work is hard, dirty and dangerous but it gives thousands of men employment and wages to feed their families. Change must take place, but not at the expense of creating starvation conditions for these people. It took Great Britain over two hundred years to create safe industrial practices and provide the workforce with good working conditions, we cannot expect Bangladesh to achieve these changes overnight. 
 
Following the shipbreaking sequence there are some scenes at a station near Chittagong. Then video shot during a daylight journey from Chittagong to Dhaka on the Sudarna Express. Note the many snack vendors, there is no need to go hungry on a Bangladesh train! The 320km line is currently being doubled throughout to increase capacity and shorten journey time.

15 Most Incredible Junkyards in the World

 
 

17 feb. 2018

Cars, trucks, planes and other vehicles with engines have a defined lifespan! Any vehicle that speeds along European highways shining with nickel-plated parts and chromium-plated wheels or braving the ocean waves could face a threatening sky that would bring fear and destruction to their steel wings. The outcome is always the same, as they will go for scrap. Below, we have described the world’s biggest and most incredible mechanical graveyards!

16 RECYCLING CRUISE SHIPS! How & Why Ships Are Scrapped?

 
 

21 aug. 2020

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 / http://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: https://midshipcentury.com/

Andrew Sassoi-Walker https://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.

17 The Dark side of the Shipping Industry – Ship Breakers

Back to menu

17 apr. 2013

In a nut shell, ‘ship breaking’ is where large numbers of used ships are sent to developing countries like China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Turkey, they are systematically broken down by the cheap labor hired by these ship breakers. Workers are not trained, they are not supplied PPE and they get paid about $1 per day to work 12 hours every day, 7 days a week.

18 Supertanker FRONT DRIVER beaching itself at Gadani Pakistan.

Back to menu

23 jan. 2013

 
Supertanker named FRONT DRIVER, built in 1991 by Hyundai Heavy Industries South Korea (and owned by Frontline Management of Norway) – Now at the end of it’s service life comes to Gadani beach of Pakistan, for decommissioning and breaking. All the steel (almost 90,000 tons of it) will now get recycled, and used within Pakistan. This video shows how a giant ship such as this arrived at Gadani beach (on November 28th 2012), and how got broken up. Special thanks to Mr. Dewan Rizwan Farooqui (Chairman of Pakistan Ship Breaker’s Association) – For allowing me to gather all this video footage, as well as being an amazing host.

Shipping’s Dirty Secret
File on 4

The shipping industry is worth millions to the British economy and we depend on it for most of our goods. File on 4 lifts the lid on the dangerous and polluting world of shipbreaking and investigates why ships once owned by UK companies end their lives on beaches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Editor, Maggie Latham
Producer, Jim Booth
Reporter, Kate West

Ship scrappage and global trade
Business Daily

We examine some of the less glamorous minutiae of global trade – like where old ships go to die, and who clears up the mess afterwards. We have a report from the ship-wrecking yards of Bangladesh.

And we shine a light on that little square thing they place under heavy crates of stuff to lift them on and off lorries. Could the humble pallet in fact be the single most important object in the global economy? Marshall White, director of the Pallet & Container Research Laboratory at Virginia Tech University, thinks it might be.

Plus the scourge of the license. The USA may have a reputation as the champion of unregulated commerce, but some 30% of its workforce require specialist licenses to work their trade, and our regular commentator Steve Fritzinger argues that such restrictions, put there in the name of consumer-protection, often border on the ridiculous.

(Image: A ship-breaking yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Credit: FARJANA K. GODHULY/AFP/Getty Images)

18 The Scariest Prank Ever

 
 

12 okt. 2016

It’s one thing to imagine spirits around when you’re home alone and you hear all kinds of noises, but it’s another one to fall face to face with a very possessed little girl in bright daylight…
 
Filmed in Montreal, Quebec Welcome to the world-famous Just for Laughs Gags channel, where we pull public pranks on unsuspecting Montreal residents and tourists.