Where do ships go after their service life?
Ship disposal methods have come a long way as several approaches have been introduced and discontinued since the beginning of marine transportation. Most of the time, especially a half-century ago, the ships ended up in vast graveyards only to slowly decay in the years to come.
Also called a ship cemetery, these graveyards would generally have many ships, boats, or hulls of scrapped vessels left to decay and rust.
Such graveyards were formed as a result of the deliberate disposal of the vessels, natural calamities and wars, among others. Thus, the phrase now refers to places that are created specifically for a ship’s decomposition and also the oceanic parts where ships have been stranded without any chance of getting rescued because of natural occurrences.
In addition, the places where several vessels have been purposely scuttled together, and have been sunk during naval battles are also known as ship graveyards.
Contrary to its name, these kinds of graveyards on the seabed are now home to rich marine life, becoming an excellent destination for scuba divers and marine enthusiasts. Sometimes, even ship-breaking yards, where the vessels are dismantled or scrapped for recycling their metal parts, are also termed ship graveyards.
Biggest Shipyard In The World
Here is a list of such 10 ship graveyards around the world.
1. Bay of Nouadhibou
Located in Mauritania, this passage of water is regarded unequivocally across the world as being the world’s largest ship graveyard.
It is said that more than 300 vessels can be found in this graveyard, both in the water and on land. However, unlike the other mentioned ship graveyards, the Bay of Nouadhibou was used as a ship dumping ground mainly on account of the avarice of the Mauritian authorities who allowed uncensored dumping of ships in the Bay after receiving bribes.
Hundreds of ships were brought from all over the world to be disposed of in the area during the 80s following the nationalization of the country’s fishing industry. The popular wreck of the Bay of Nouadhibou ship graveyard is a reefer vessel named United Malika.
2. Aral Sea
The Aral Sea is a well-known graveyard of ships in the Eurasian country of Uzbekistan.
Once a thriving hive of fishing activity, the Aral Sea was reduced to a graveyard after the Soviet government decided to divert two rivers that fed the sea to irrigate the desert for cultivation, particularly of cotton.
The Aral Sea began to shrink in the 1960s and the body of water had split the lake into two separate bodies of water–the North and South Aral Seas- in 1987…
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