What does it take to keep a vessel ship shape for as long as possible? To find out more, we had a little chat with ship expert Atle Ellefsen, a naval architect and a senior executive at Det Norske Veritas DNV , the Norwegian classification society.
Here's what he had to say. Heidi: While current statistics peg the average life expectancy of a North American human at 78, how long can a new cruise ship expect to survive?
AE: A passenger ship's design life is normally 30 years. It's the age used as the basis for the design and production of all major elements, including the steel structure and machinery. To keep everything running smoothly for three decades or so, the shipyard gives the owner the cruise line a maintenance schedule to follow, like the service recommendations from a car dealer.
So no one forgets when a tune-up is due, ships have in-built computer-based maintenance programs that automatically generate work orders for everything from replacing cabin coat hooks to reconditioning propeller bearings.
For cosmetic maintenance issues, from removing rust to painting steel, it's up to the owner's own policies and standards. Any issues related to safety are subject to regulatory requirements and inspections from the country where the ship is registered often tax-friendly places like the Bahamas , Liberia and Panama , from classification societies like the DNV and from governments of the various ports visited.
Heidi: What about the handful of older cruise ships still in operation, how do they make it past 30? AE: There are ships from the s still in operation, but it costs. Realistically, after about 30 years of a relatively efficient life, things start to happen. Normally, a cruise operator receiving a run-of-the-mill new ship will keep it and maintain for about 25 to 30 years.
Then it is sold down-market and maybe operated for another 5 to 15 years before either it's scrapped or deployed for a few more years in special circumstances, such as for duty as a Mercy ship floating hospitals for the poor or as means of transport for developing countries. Only in exceptional cases, where the vessel itself sells and makes money as a symbol of national prestige -- like the built QE2 -- will the owner keep it beyond sensible technical operating age.
When a passenger ship reaches about 30 to 40 years, it has to undergo major rebuilding. Keeping a ship operating more than 50 years is possible, but on an economical scale there needs to be a special reason for the board of directors to justify the escalating costs to keep it. Ship-owners are not particularly known for being driven by feelings in keeping their classics.
Heidi: What tends to wear our first on a cruise ship? Is it the engines, propellers, air-conditioning system or what? AE: In order to keep the ship up to code based on guidelines from classification societies like DNV, for instance , all engine components are replaced and maintained on a regular basis.
A main engine body will last for eternity and still work, provided the moving parts and attachments are renewed. The ship sat in Genoa when she failed a safety inspection in It was deemed too expensive to fix her, and there were no buyers at auction. Ultimately, she was purchased by a Turkish scrapyard where she made her final voyage to be stripped for metal and parts at the end of The ship was bought by Sundance cruises, a newly formed division started by Stanley McDonald the man who formed Princess Cruises in the s.
He wanted to start a new cruise line, called Sundance Cruises, where you could actually get your car, drive it onto the ship, and sail off to Mexico for seven days. In the summer, they put the ship on Alaska cruise service. Shortly after it began sailing that circuit, it struck a rock off Vancouver and sank.
It was declared a total constructive loss. En route to be scrapped, a Greek company saw potential. They bought the sunken Sundancer , raised her, and fixed her. Later, she sailed as the MS Pegasus , suffered a fire, and sank…again. She was fixed once again to sail as the Ionian Express, but caught fire in the rebuilding process and was declared a total constructive loss for the third, and last, time. In , she was towed to a Turkish scrapyard. It's hard to imagine, but most will eventually end up in breaking yards such as Gadani, near the Pakistan port of Karachi, or Alang, India, where they'll be systematically torn apart.
When a ship's been earmarked for scrapping in somewhere like Alang, its operator will first remove anything it wants for salvage. That's all sold in parcel with the ship itself.
In Alang, explains Miller, the crew will wait until tidal conditions are right and then deliberately run the ship aground on the beach. When the vessel is stuck in the sand, final papers are signed, and the dismantling begins -- a process that can be fraught with risks both for the workers involved and the environment surrounding the scrap yard.
Freelance cruise journalist Peter Knego has visited Alang nine times and has also traveled to another shipbreaking yard in Aliaga, Turkey. Knego developed a fascination with ocean liners and cruising as a kid when he read about the Lusitania, the British ocean liner that sunk in , and the interest extended into his adult life. He first visited Alang in , telling CNN Travel he spotted "10 historic former liners and first generation cruise ships" on the beaches on that one trip alone.
Once the cruise ship arrives at its final destination, everything inside must be removed, from the grand chandeliers to the toilets. Inside the half-destroyed cruise ships is an eerie sight. Knego says that many assets, such as furniture and lighting, will be resold locally. Then begins the dangerous and involved process of dismantling the ship's superstructure. Some of the steel will be melted and reused in construction.
Knego's reasons for visiting Alang aren't just to witness the dismantling process in action. He's a collector, and his trips have been timed with the arrival of significant ships in the hope of claiming interior assets for himself.
The ships arrive at the ship breaking yards with their furniture in tact. Pictured here, vintage cruise chairs at Alang, India. With the aid of a local agent, Knego gains access to the vessel, often climbing up a ladder, to scout the items he wants, then makes deals to buy them. These are then packed into a container and shipped back to his home in the United States, which he describes as an "ocean liner museum.
Step inside his house and you might spot artwork that once graced Carnival's first ship, the Mardi Gras, which first set sail in There's also paneling, lighting, ceramics and railings from ships including the s-era MV Augustus and the 's Stella Solaris.
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