Ship graveyard

A ship graveyard or ship cemetery is a location where the hulls of scrapped ships are left to decay and disintegrate, or left in reserve. Such a practice is now less common due to waste regulations and so some dry docks where ships are broken (to recycle their metal and remove dangerous materials like asbestos) are also known as ship graveyards.

Large ships are scrapped in Alang, India

Staten Island boat graveyard in 1973

Shipwrecks in Camaret-sur-Mer

French navy graveyard at Landévennec near Brest

Boat cemetery in Bénodet

By analogy, the phrase can also refer to an area with many shipwrecks which not been removed by human agency, instead being left to disintegrate naturally. These can form in places where navigation is difficult or dangerous (such as the Seven Stones, off Cornwall, or Blackpool, on the Irish Sea); or where many ships have been deliberately scuttled together (as with the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow); or where many ships have been sunk in battle (such as Ironbottom Sound, in the Pacific).

As of January 2020, with 30% share India has the highest global revenue and highest share of global ship breaking (number and volume of ships broken), and the world's largest Ship graveyard is in India at Alang.[1]

List of ship graveyards

France

• Guilvinec-Lechiagat
• On the River Rance
• Magouër (Plouhinec, Morbihan)
• Plouhinec, Finistère
• Landévennec

United Kingdom

• The River Tamar downstream of the Royal Albert Bridge used to be used as a mooring site for mothballed vessels, including submarines, of the Royal Navy. These have now all been removed.
• Portsmouth Harbour hosts a number of ex Royal Navy vessels, awaiting removal for scrapping.
• Forton Lake in Gosport, near Portsmouth, is host to approximately thirty vessels, several of which saw action in World War II.

United States

• The US Navy "phantom fleet" at Suisun Bay, to the north of San Francisco Bay
• Witte's Marine Salvage - the Staten Island boat graveyard.[2]
• Bikini Atoll was designated as a ship graveyard for the U.S. Pacific fleet; it later became known as a nuclear testing facility.
• Mallows Bay, Maryland.[3]
• Green Jacket Shoal, Rhode Island

Africa

• Wrecks all along the peninsular coast at Nouadhibou

Asia

• Several locations near the Aral Sea
• The ship-breaking yards of Alang (India), Chittagong (Bangladesh), and Gadani Beach (Pakistan)

Australia

All states and territories of Australia, except the land-locked Australian Capital Territory, have ships' graveyards

New South Wales:

• Stockton Breakwater (Newcastle)
• Homebush Bay Ships' Graveyard (Sydney)
• Pindimar Bay Ships' Graveyard/The Duckhole (Myall Lakes)

Northern Territory:

• Darwin Harbour East Arm

Queensland:

• Bishop Island Ships' Graveyard (Brisbane)
• Tangalooma Ships' Graveyard (Moreton Island)
• The Bulwer Wrecks (Moreton Island)
• Curtin Artificial Reef

South Australia:[4]

• Port Adelaide and environs - sites at Mutton Cove, Jervois Basin, Garden Island, Angas Inlet and Broad Creek.[5][6][7][8]

Further information: Port River

• Port Augusta[9]
• Port Flinders[10]
• Port Pirie[11]
• Planned scuttling sites near Ardrossan, Cowell, Glenelg, Goat Island, Kangaroo Island, Port Noarlunga, Port Stanvac, Stenhouse Bay, Whyalla and Yankalilla Bay.[12]

Further information: HMAS Hobart (D 39) and No 5 dumb hopper barge

Tasmania:

• Little Betsey Island Ships' Graveyard (Hobart)
• East Risdon Ships' Graveyard (Hobart)
• Strahan Ships' Graveyard (Strahan)
• Tamar Island Ships' Graveyard (Launceston)

Victoria:

• Barwon Heads Ships' Graveyard (Port Phillip Bay)

Western Australia:

• Careening Bay Ships' Graveyard
• Rottnest Island Ships' Graveyard (off Rottnest Island)
• Jervoise Bay Ships' Graveyard
• Albany Ships' Graveyard (Albany)

See also

• Ghost ship
• Derelict (maritime)
• Marine debris
• Marine pollution
• Shipbreaking

References

1. India eyes 60 per cent share of global ship recycling business; higher GDP contribution, Economic Times, 30 December 2019.
2. http://www.opacity.us/site55_staten_island_boat_graveyard.htm
3. United States Coast Pilot. 3 (43rd ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Ocean Service. 2010. p. 313. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
4. (South Australian) ‘Ships Graveyards’ at http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/Heritage/Heritage_places_areas/Ships_graveyards, retrieved 12/06/2012.
5. ‘Port Adelaide’ (Ships Graveyards) at http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/Heritage/Heritage_places_areas/Ships_graveyards/Locations/Port_Adelaide, retrieved 13/06/2013.
6. Hartell, Robyn; Richards, Nathan (2001). Garden Island, Ships's Graveyard. Heritage SA, Department for Environment and Heritage. pp. 1–6. ISBN 0-7308-5894-4.
7. "Port Adelaide (Ships' Graveyards)". South Australian Department of Environment and Heritage. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
8. Richards, Nathan (1997). "The History and Archaeology of the Garden Island Ships' Graveyard, North Arm of the Port River, Port Adelaide, South Australia (Honours thesis, BA(Hons), Archaeology)" (PDF). Flinders University of South Australia. pp. 26–30. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
9. 'Port Augusta' (Ships graveyards' at http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/Heritage/Heritage_places_and_areas/Ships_graveyards/Location_of_ships%E2%80%99_graveyards/Port_Augusta, retrieved 12/06/2012.
10. 'Port Flinders' at http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/Heritage/Heritage_places_and_areas/Ships_graveyards/Location_of_ships%E2%80%99_graveyards/Port_Flinders, retrieved 12/06/2012.
11. 'Port Pirie (Ships graveyards) at http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/Heritage/Heritage_places_and_areas/Ships_graveyards/Location_of_ships%E2%80%99_graveyards/Port_Pirie, retrieved 12/06/2012
12. ‘Location of ships’ graveyards’ at http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/Heritage/Heritage_places_areas/Ships_graveyards/Locations, retrieved 12/06/2012.

External links

• Gadani Beach
• (in French) Ship graveyards
• (in French) Ship graveyard on the Rance
• (in French) Ship graveyard at the port of Guilvinec-Lechiagat
• (in French) Ship graveyard at Magouër
• Google maps view of ships graveyard