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[Seamas]

I have something of a fascination with big ships, freighters, supertankers and the like, but especially with ship graveyards where the beasts go to die.  Places like Alang and Chittagong in India where thousands of poor people basically equipped with hand tools and some high-powered butane torches scavenge every salvageable scrap of metal from the monstrous ships, right there on the beach sand, until nothing remains.  I can't even imagine how they do it, but the pictures are fascinating.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Does anyone know of any good video documentaries or books (preferably with lots of pictures) about these places and the lives of those ship breakers?  Anyone seen ship graveyards in the 3rd world with their own eyes?

[ChairmanPoo]

I used to visit a site which had a collection of shipwreck photos. I dont know if it's in my bookmarks still. .... doesn't seem to be. Sorry. I like those pics too :/

[Aqizzar]

I'd never heard of third-world ship breakers until World War Z, but I've seen something like it.  When I was kid, I lived on the coast of Lake Michigan for a while, near a pretty big port where they used to break down old freighters for steel.  I never got to see it working, but it was definitely an industrial sort of thing, with dry-docks and cranes and such, not just people hammering hulls apart.  I don't know what the whole story was, but I'm pretty sure it was shut down before I was born; there were still a few rusty old hulls there, including one that had fallen over in a dry-dock, that were tied up in litigation when the place closed (probably) and were just left to rot.

Also reminds me of that scene in Lord of War, where an Antonov cargo plane is broken down into scraps, in time-lapse like a documentary on scavengers.  It was a really cool scene, I've wondered how they actually filmed it.

[PTTG??]

Reminds me of how they recycle computer parts. They ship them over to places where women and children with hot plates melt the solder off the boards and pry the chips off. The toxic fumes are everywhere.

That's probably happened to something you owned.

[Aqizzar]

Reminds me of how they recycle computer parts. They ship them over to places where women and children with hot plates melt the solder off the boards and pry the chips off. The toxic fumes are everywhere.

That's probably happened to something you owned.

Makes me feel good that I've never thrown away an electronic device in my life.  They all just get swapped from one family member to another until they're totally nonfunctional, then get resigned to the garage for the rest of time.

[Seamas]

In Lord of War, I think they actually just had a crowd of trained extras take the plane apart and sped up the footage.  I'm sure it can be done overnight with enough hands, tools and a good plan.

[Sowelu]

Huh.  Posting to follow, I guess, because this looks pretty cool.

...Although when I saw the thread title, before I clicked I thought it either belonged in the MSPA thread or in Life Advice.

[Croquantes]

There's a cool documentary called Shipbreakers. I haven't seen it, but you might wanna check it out.

Another good documentary is Manufactured Landscapes (here's the trailer). It's surprisingly colourful, considering most of the imagery is of blasted wastelands.  The documentary vividly shows bright red rusted ships in Indian ship graveyards and they look beautiful and surreal. But rust becomes airborne and toxic to the people breaking the ships. Really tragic. Strange how the pollution and waste we create can end up looking beautiful and be so deadly.

[olemars]

Those ship hulks contain all kinds of nasty, toxic materials. Some of it is purposefully toxic, like the paint below the waterline.

I always feel a bit sad when I see pictures of "dead" ships. Maybe it's because I grew up near shipyards and mostly saw the ships when they were brand new.

[Strife26]

I saw my first abandoned big ships (and they're pretty big) a few days ago here in Iraq. It's pretty weird to see them, because I'd assume that there's still enough metal to be worth something in scrap, but this is a pretty dysfunctional place by itself. I'll post some pictures of them when I get a camera.

[Seamas]

Croquantes, those look like great documentaries.  I'll try to get my hands on those.  I think my university library has Manufactured Landscapes.

In the meanwhile, this short documentary I just found online http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/festival/play/4133/The-Shipbreakers  has some interesting up-close footage.  Overall, it's pretty bland, and not cinematographically stunning but free to watch.