Top 6 deadly Shipyards around the World
There is a bustling industry that thrives on the dismantling ships! Here are 6 deadly shipyards around the world.
6. Skeleton Coast, Namibia
The dry, red sands of Skeleton Coast— stretching 500 kilometers long— are virtually uninhabited and painstakingly untamed, taking its name from the thousands of bones littered throughout and the hundreds of ships that have wrecked here over the centuries.
5. The Arthur Kill Boat Yard, New York
At its peak, however, the graveyard saw about 400 vessels predating World War I in its heyday. One thing that makes the Arthur Kill Boat Yard unique, it the wide variety of ships left to rest within its ruddy waters— tugboats, warships, fishing boats, and ferries pervade the shoreline here, and after the founder died in 1980, the corporation became the DonJon Marine Company.
4. The Bay of Nouadhibou, Mauritius
Located in Mauritania, more than 300 vessels are found both submerged in water and perched precariously in the sand, and the inhabitance of both easily deem this region one of the largest shipyards in the world.
The Bay of Nouadhibou is a highly popular dumping ground due to its uncensored clearance of scrap metal into the bay, and this isn’t necessarily a good thing.
3. The Gadani Breaking Yard
From nearby squatter settlements, workers come and swarm the 10 kilometer stretch of beach at the Gadani Breaking Yard, where the expansive ship-breaking yard consists of over 130 ship-breaking posts. The yard provides employment to over 6,000 people who dismantle about 125 ships a year.
2. Chittagong, Bangladesh
The second largest shipbreaking center in the world, Chittagong in Bangladesh recycled 230 ships and generated 10 million tonnes of steel last year alone. The workers live in overcrowded shacks located close to the yards— a place that is hidden behind high metal gates and bears all the warmth a steel cemetery can muster.
1. Alang, Gujarat India
With respect to ship breaking in the Indian sub-continent, Alang in Gujarat, India is hands down the world’s largest graveyard— overseeing the dismantling of 50% of the world’s vessels.
Located in the Gulf of Khambat, over a hundred yards of beach pay homage to the breakage of ships including car ferries, ocean liners, container ships, and large supertankers.
The past three decades have made this site one of the most popular ship cemeteries on the planet, as even the world’s longest vessel ever built— the Seawise Giant, was sailed to and beached in Alang for demolition in 2009.