What happens when ships come to the end of their lives? The answer is they are scrapped. But where and how? The answer to that is they are rather dramatically broken up in ship-breaking yards. The Gadani ship-breaking yard in Pakistan is one of the largest ship scrapping yards in the world.
There are different types of ship graveyards in the world. One of the most dramatic is the sunken Japanese navy in Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon where the Americans unleashed more fire and fury than the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor. But not all ships are scrapped. Some of the lucky ones get to become hotels or museums - like the RMS Queen Mary in California.
The Size of The Gadani Ship Breaking Yard
The Gadani ship-breaking yard is located around 40 kilometers or 25 miles northwest of Karachi (the largest city of Pakistan). It is the third-largest ship-breaking yard in the world and has 132 ship-breaking plots.
Largest Ship Breaking Yards:
- Largest: Alang Ship Breaking Yard In Alang, India
- Second Largest: Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard in Bangladesh
- Third Largest: Gadani Ship Breaking Yard In Pakistan
- Fourth Largest: Aliaga Ship Breaking Yard in Turkey
Gadani was established in the 1980s and was once the largest ship-breaking yard in the world and boasted over 30,000 direct employees. In more recent years it has been facing growing completion from the newer yards elsewhere on the subcontinent.
While still, the third-largest, Gadani today is just around a fifth of what it used to be in the 1980s and its employees are down to around 6,000 workers.
- Peak: It Employed around 30,000 Workers
Around a million tons of steel are salvaged every year at this massive graveyard where ships go to die. Much of the steel is sold domestically. This is often hazardous and difficult work and often the employees are paid as little as $12 a day.
Gadani can scrap around 125 ships of all sizes - all the way up to and including supertankers. It normally takes around 30 to 45 days for a ship of 5,000 LDT to be broken up (much faster than the six months it takes in the other giant scrap yards in India and Bangladesh).
- Capacity: Around 125 Ships Annually
The Death of Old Ships
Here the old ships are run up on the beach where they are dismantled. One can see gutted and disassembled shells of what once were mighty ships roaming the world's oceans. The ships are run up and dragged onto the shore. Many of the hollow skeletons of the ships they once were can wait for months to reach complete disassembly.
In that time their silent, rusting, broken bodies line the beach half-submerged in the water. It is a magnet for the naturally curious, the history buffs, and mechanically inclined who pop in to see the world's most useless fleet of ghost ships.
The beach is sandy and stunning. If it wasn't for the massive amount of industrial waste and for being the world's third-largest ship graveyard the beach would have been idyllic. The sight is stunning as it is dramatic.
Not all of the systems of the ships are necessarily destroyed. Some get to have a new life and are salvaged as part of the mechanical or electrical systems of newer ships. But the bulk of the hunks is melted down and become something new entirely.
- Top Ship Producing Countries: China, South Korea, and Japan
- Top Strapping Countries: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh
It is notable that the three largest shipbuilding countries are the East Asian trio of China producing 23.2 million tons, South Korea producing million tons 18.2, and Japan producing million tons 12.7 of ships according to statistica.com.
The countries with the three largest ship scrapping yards are the subcontinent trio of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
These are industrial work zones (and not tourist attractions) but many travelers have been able to gain access and capture stunning pictures of these mind-bending scrap yards of the world.
Ship scrapping is dangerous work and many employees suffer from any work-related injuries and diseases. One can read about some of the plights on Geo.tv.
Turkey's Aliaga - The Cruise Ship Graveyard
The world's fourth-largest ship-breaking yard in Aliaga in Turkey is also notable for the types of ships that it digests. The pandemic sounded the death knell for many old cruise ships which were already on the brink of their useful lives. One can see astonishing pictures captured of these ships on CNN Travel.
- Cruise Ships: It Seems That Cruise Ships Go To Die in Turkey
In these pictures, one can see scores of once luxurious cruise ships where countless thousands of people when on their tropical holidays huddled together for destruction.