Inside the cruise ship graveyard, where abandoned pleasure boats are stripped of parts and shells left to rot
WELCOME to the place where more than 670 abandoned ships have died, including massive multi-million pound cruises.
The Aliağa Shipyard to the west Turkey is one of the largest ships recycling facilities inside Europe and sees how pleasure boats are taken apart every day and left to rot.
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Located in the ports of Izmir, the cruise ship graveyard is perpetually full of glamorous boats that are now in a state of disrepair.
After being decommissioned and deemed no longer fit for use, the expensive ships are delivered to the breaking yard where workers go down. company tear them apart.
Online images show the giant cruise ships piled up one by one, waiting to be dismantled or already stripped for all they are worth.
The process begins with the ship's captains beaching their beloved boats at the yard in Turkey before undergoing a thorough inspection.
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The crew then gets to work dismantling the ships and removing any material that can be resold at a profit.
The metals recovered from a ship could make up to $4 million (£3.15 million) in profits if everything is recycled for future built or resold.
According to reports, there are around 2,500 shipbreakers working on a single boat, battling the difficult conditions and sheer size of many of the ships to empty them largely by hand.
Emre Aras, project manager at Avsar Gemi Sokum shipyard, said: “I can easily say that cruise ships are the most difficult type to dismantle because there are, you know, hundreds of rooms on board.”
Workers spend hours tearing apart desolation swimming swimming pools, destroying former gymnasiums and stripping walls, windows, floors and railings, leaving the ship bare to the core.
Once the decks are clear, the workers begin tearing away at the sides of the boats, removing large chunks one by one until only the shells remain intact.
But it's not just luxury cruise ships that head to Aliağa to languish, as drillships, ferries, oil rigs and giant tankers are all stripped of their valuable parts.
The Aliağa shipyard is considered the second largest ship graveyard, but the top spot goes to Alang, in India's Gulf of Khambhat, where more than half of the world's decommissioned cruise ships alone are recycled.
Dangerous work
In addition to the time and manpower required to completely clear a single ship, the ship is also considered one of the most dangerous in the world.
The workers involved are at constant risk of danger every day when they arrive at the shipyard for a variety of reasons.
Nicola Mulinaris, communications and policy officer at NGO Shipbreaking Platform, told Insider that workers must be careful not to fall off the ships or be hit by falling objects.
They also have to deal with machines that can lead to unpleasant injuries if used incorrectly, such as blowtorches or drills.
But the chemical side of the job poses the greatest threat to staff.
The amount of toxic gas on board an abandoned ship in high doses can be fatal and inhaling any amount of the dangerous gas can lead to serious consequences health fear in the future.
Oil fumes, paint, any residual fuel and burning plastic are all the biggest silent killers on board a battered ship.
Moreover, shipbreakers work extremely hard weather conditions all year round and are always at risk of making very expensive mistakes.
A mistake can be costly in most industries, but especially in industries such as ship recycling.
Causing damage to the environment can attract heavy fines from environmental agencies and millions of pounds worth of old ship parts can be rendered useless if taken off in an unreliable condition.
One of the abandoned ship is the MS Astor which first hit the water in 1986 and carried passengers on cruises for 34 years before arriving at a graveyard of ships destined for the scrap heap.
One image shows a retro bar, frozen on time, with drinks still on the tables.
In another poignant photo, a deep empty crater sits where the pool once was and lounge chairs are lined up next to it.
A third image shows a flashy gym with incredible sea views – where the equipment is now collecting dust having not been used for years.
The incredible theater was also captured in one get it with many empty seats still in place to watch a performance that will never happen.
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