Eerie Ghost Ships and abandoned liners: What happens at the end of a ships working life?

It’s common knowledge in the cruise industry that the ships are built to work hard and to last a long time. Some ships have been known to be in service for over 40 years, sailing under the banner of several different cruise lines. To my knowledge the longest serving cruise ship was the ‘MS Regal Empress’.

Penn’s Landing Marina. May 7, 2015

A photo posted by Mike (@michael_sladden) on May 26, 2015 at 12:36pm PDT

She recently operated for Imperial Majesty cruise line. She was built in 1953 in Glasgow as the ocean liner  ‘SS Olympia’ for a company called Greek Line.

Following an extended lay-up period in 1974 and reconstruction into a diesel-engined Caribbean cruise ship, the ship re-emerged in 1983 as ‘MS Caribe 1’ for Commodore Cruise line. In 1993 she was sold to Regal Cruise line and received her final name, the ‘Regal Empress’. She operated for Imperial Majesty Cruise Line from 2003 until 2009, so that’s a 56 year working life. It’s an impressive record when you consider that the ships are sailing pretty much every day, with the odd few days break for a refurbishment.

Song of America

But what happens when a ship gets to the end of its life? Some cruise lines sell the ships on to other companies eg  Royal Caribbean’s ‘Song of America’ which was launched in 1982 was sold to Airtours Suncruises in 1999 which became its flagship ‘Sunbird’.  After 6 years Airtours withdrew from the cruise market and sold the ship to Thomson where she was to become the ‘Destiny ‘.  7 years later the ship went to Louis Cruise lines where she now operates as the ‘Celestial Olympia’. So that’s 36 years and counting for this vessel, but what’s in store when the ship is simply too old to be seaworthy…..

Most ships are sent to huge ship ‘graveyards’ where they are painstakingly dismantled by both machine and manual labour. This is an unenviable job for the workers who get paid a pittance, work long hours and suffer dangerous conditions, having to contend with toxic oils and not the best of health & safety rules. The largest of these shipyards is in Karachi, Pakistan where it stretches over 10km down the coastline. Once broken down the steel is then sold as scrap and any oil found is also sold off. The dismantling process can be quite costly to a cruise line and therefore there are some ships that simply lay abandoned.

Take the ‘World Discoverer’ for example.

Our first glimpse of the #WorldDiscoverer #shipwreck in Roderick Bay, #SolomonIslands via @silverseacruises #SilverDiscoverer #Melanesia #cruise #travel #luxury #expedition #abandoned

A photo posted by Jason Leppert (@popularcruising) on Oct 11, 2015 at 5:33pm PDT

This German-built, now-abandoned cruise ship was constructed in 1974, with a double hull that allowed her the freedom to go places where others couldn’t, ie the icy waters of the Antarctic Peninsula. But like many vessels MS World Discoverer was sold and resold over the years. After years of transporting scientists and researchers to study the movements of ice flows and other natural phenomenon throughout the Northwest Passage, the ship finally met her fate on a massive rock as the ship attempted to navigate Sandfly Passage in the Solomon Islands. The captain managed to beach the ship where it lay, preventing the floundering vessel from sinking completely. The abandoned cruise ship has since been extensively looted, but it remains a popular and slightly ironic sight on other tourist cruises through the area.

Then there’s the Duke of Lancaster

Mostyn fun ship! #urbanexploration #ship #dukeoflancaster #funship

A photo posted by Lauren Jessica ♍️? (@lollyownsazoo) on Nov 8, 2015 at 2:57am PST

This Ship has had a rather strange sort of life. Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, she was both a passenger ferry and cruise ship, with décor and restaurant service to compete with the very best. She was taken on regular, long cruises as a break from her day-to-day ferry service, skipping around the ocean from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. In August of 1979, the cruise ship was retired to a dock in North Wales with the intention of making her a static attraction. She was going to be turned into ‘The Fun Ship’ a floating entertainment complex. Planning permission and red tape kept that from happening, though, and she continued to sit and rust. Since then she’s become something else – a place for artists to express themselves. Some of the best-known graffiti artists from across Europe were invited to work on the hull of the ship to make it slightly more attractive than a rusting hunk of metal.

There’s something very eerie and sad about an abandoned ship when you think about what will have happened throughout the years of service. How many passengers have sailed on them? What tales could be told if the walls could talk? There are so many ships currently in service and with some of the cruise lines vying to have the biggest, most technologically advanced ships around, bringing more new ships in to service we may need to find more ship graveyards to cope!