Just a little cut, but it all starts somewhere. RIP.

http://titanic-model.com/dc/dcboard.php ... 008&page=2

Sad... I hope a similar fate doesn't befall the 'Big U', but I'm not optimistic.

I was aboard the Norway a few years ago, it really did give you the experience of what the great old liners were like.

Question: Wasn't there some attempt being made to save her?

Indeed, lets hope a similar fate doesn't befall the SS United States.

Clipping the ship's bow is a traditional practice at Alang,where so many of these liners and cruise ships go to die. The place is a toxic nightmare, and OSHA would do back flips, not to mention the EPA, if they ever stepped onto the land there. Several attempts were made to save the"France", but as I've mentioned before, if you think trying to save a steam locomotive is expensive, you ain't seen nothin' until you try to save a ship! Many ships, once preserved, fall into a state of living death, and eventually a fire sweeps them, finishing the job. I am all for preserving ocean liners, but it is a job beyond the scope of a few fans.

Unfortunately ocean liners are commercial tools that must have an economically viable reason to exist, the fact that a few people remember them fondly just will not do it. If they cannot make money as a cruise ship, a stationary hotel or a convention center they are better off being cut up than burning and sinking in the middle of a harbor. (Although the claiming of the grounded SS AMERICA by the sea was certainly fascinating to watch). This stuff soaks up big money and there have been lots of failed marine preservation attempts. Just look at the millions of dollars that disappeared into the SS NOBSKA. Their website was still sailing along asking for donations to pay the lawyers a year after the ship was torched. Nobody could come up with enough money in time to keep New York Central #16 from being torched by CVS after it sat for two decades as a gateway to one of the most affluent regions in the United States (Cape Cod), so saving ocean liners for their nostalgia value gets to be pretty impractical.

Even the 'Queen Mary' in Long Beach, often pointed to as a success story in ocean liner preservation, has a long history of financial difficulties and changes in management over the years. As a whole, the operation's only been marginally successful, and the ship's been so extensively modified in its role as museum/hotel that it's really not very authentic. Still, she is 'preserved'. The SS United States was completely gutted down to the structural steel and her furnishings auctioned off in the '80s and early '90s. Any restoration of the interior spaces would be a major undertaking.

To be honest, the only truly successful large ship preservation actions I can think of are those groups that saved the SS Jeremiah O' Brian and the SS John W. Brown. Both ships remain seaworthy and make annual sailings around the country. However, the organizations that own these ships have a massive volunteer corp that not only crews the boats and maintains them, but raises money and recruits more volunteers. Preserving a working steamship required even more determination than a single steam locomotive due to the greater complexity involved.

Another ship that can be added to the list of successful marine preservation efforts is the Destroyer Escort USS SLATER in Albany, New York which is "partially functional". The Chief Engineer and his crew have restored several of her ships service engine generator sets, and since her propulsion machinery is intact there is a future operating potential that is a matter of time, money, and a lot of hard work on the part of many dedicated volunteers.

If you have not seen the USS SLATER, you should go and take a look. She is a time warp right back to 1944. Walking around the ship you can wonder if you have enough time to see everything before the crew returns, fires up the main engines, and gets underway again. Everything in the compartments is as it should be, it looks as if they tied her up yesterday and went on shore leave.

One thing they have found to be very important in their experience with the USS SLATER is to have the crew quarters, galley, and auxiliary equipment fully functional. This allows the volunteers who have travelled some distance to stay on board the ship rather than having to leave to seek expensive motel rooms and restaurant food. With an aging volunteer force there are some important lessons to be learned here for railroad museums.

You can also add the S.S. Lane Victory in Los Angeles Harbor. They make annual day long cruises out to Catalina Island and Back.

"Alang", is this in Bangledesh? I remember seeing something that the majority of the scrapping is done by hand.

battle ship Texas, even though struggling, is still going

another amazing example of America when we could manufacture stuff ourselves

dr

Having been slightly involved in an effort to save my old boat, USS America (CV-66) in the 1990's, it became apparent the US Navy, having seen the state of the USS Texas and other examples, realized the long term up keep of large steel vessels is a non-trivial task that is beyond the abilities of a couple of dedicated people at the time of turnover. These boats have to be dry docked, inspected, bottoms cleaned, repaired, prepared and painted every so often, else they, just like their wooden sisters will one day settle into the mud.

Unless you've spent some time under one of these boats in dry dock, I think it is hard even for a former crew member to gain an appreciation of the number of square feet involved, let alone the cost of materials, time and facilities. Then there is the fact that dry dock facilities of the right size might not be nearby now, let alone 60-100 years into the future.

So unless you come to the Navy with a solid plan that includes government (at some level) buy in and a clear commitment, they will hardly even talk to you. And that's only if the Navy has decided the boat is worthy of being offered up in the form of having provided some level of service during its career.

Two projects/ships of interest to follow. One is a group attempting to save the carrier USS Kitty Hawk and park it not that far from its namesake location. Interesting enough, until it is realized it wont' fit under a bridge in the way. The 2nd will be the final resting location of the carrier USS J F Kennedy, just recently decommissioned, as one might expect there to be some powerful political forces behind saving her, even though as Ross recently said, "she was rid hard and put to bed wet."

The Navy decided the cost of cutting up the America, given all the hazmats involved, was too great and sunk her, in part, in an exercise to see how large ships sink and thus learn how to better design the next generation carrier, a cool $40m project. While she is "gone", I'm happy to consider she'll be on this earth long after I'm gone and will likely be explored by a future generation, albeit remotely. I believe this to be a fate better than the torch.

Bob

Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat, India

Might be the same place. It was where the Russian Ski-Jump Carrier "Kiev" was taken apart for scrap.

Lots of ships have met their end on the beach at Alang in the last 15 or so years. Warships include their aircraft carriers USS Bennington (CV22) and Brazil's Minas Gerais, (nee HMS Vengeance). Among the passenger liners broken up there were the old Moore McCormack liners Argentina & Brazil, and two years ago the last Union Castle liner, RMS Windsor Castle was broken up on the exact same piece of beach where Norway will be broken.