Boatnerd Discussion Forum

I just think its a shame that some of those fantastic cabin interiors are not salvaged. Some of the boats that I worked on, the T.W. Robinson in particular, had gorgeous woodwork in the Captain's and Guest quarters.

I think there are alot of different factors contributing to how much "stuff" is left on a ship when it goes for scrap. For instance. How long the ship sat idle and what the owners want to salvage for themselves.

I remember back in 2005, when the Joseph H, Frantz went to the scrap yard. Alot of stuff was still on her. With the exception of the ships helm wheel gone, everything was still in the pilothouse. Charts, chadburns, compase repeaters, running lights, etc. were still there. In the galley there was still food in the refrigerator and condiments still on the table. It looked like someone said "grab your personal belongings and get off the ship. infact there was a grocery list being filled out for the 2005 shipping season. Yet when the Kinsman Enterprise was being scrapped in 2003, there was absolutely nothing left on her. When the Calumet was scrapped a few years ago they stopped at the old stone dock in Hamberstone and took almost everthing off her. International Marine Salvage basically just got a rusted out hull.

I'm sure the selling price reflects whats left on the hull.

When Agawa Canyon made her last trip through the Welland Canal, she stopped for several hours above Lock 8 and plenty of spare parts were taken away by truck.

Mac Mackay wrote:The ship scrapping companies make money recycling all parts of the ships, including anchors and chains. Scrap metal is priced by weight so the more tons of scrap metal you have the more money you make. Therefore they want ships to be largely intact.
Most equipment on these ships is past its useful life anyway or must be re-certified for use elsewhere, so it doesn't really pay to keep it.
Domestic scrap companies will salvage parts from ships for resale, so there is no real shortage of spares if needed.

Actually they do strip quite a large amount of parts from the interiors before the ships go for scrap.

what about all the non-metal parts like desks, chairs, helm wheel, electronics, ect

The ship scrapping companies make money recycling all parts of the ships, including anchors and chains. Scrap metal is priced by weight so the more tons of scrap metal you have the more money you make. Therefore they want ships to be largely intact.
Most equipment on these ships is past its useful life anyway or must be re-certified for use elsewhere, so it doesn't really pay to keep it.
Domestic scrap companies will salvage parts from ships for resale, so there is no real shortage of spares if needed.

It doesn't appear that the shipping companies salvage parts from ships that they are sending to scrap. ULS and Algoma didn't appear to remove anything from the ships they are currently sending overseas. I would think that anchors, chain, radar equipment, lifeboats, liferings, lights, etc., are all things that they may want to keep in a yard for parts for thier currently sailing ships?