One of the most poignant images to illustrate the untimely demise of cruise ships was captured by a drone overhead the Aliaga ship-breakers on Turkey’s Aegean coast in October 2020. It shows Carnival Fantasy; Carnival Imagination, Carnival Inspiration; plus Pullmantur’s Sovereign and Monarch being cut down in their prime. As Covid-19 ravaged the cruise industry, an ignominious end befell these ships – but they were certainly not the last. 

In an effort to stem declining revenues, 34 cruise ships were sold or scrapped last year, and this list has grown in 2021. Many miles from Turkey, at a somewhat inconspicuous facility at Alang in the state of Gujarat, cruise ships are queuing up to confront their destiny like hearses outside a crematorium. 

At this Indian recycling facility more than 50 percent of the world’s abandoned and decommissioned cruise ships are dismantled in 183 self-contained ship-breaking yards, each employing around 200 to 300 workers who live in shanty towns along a ten-mile stretch of steeply sloping beaches.

Ships arriving at their last resting place depict a forlorn scene. The once immaculate pleasure palaces are rammed at full speed onto the beach during high tide. Their hulls lurch, groan and grind in futile protest as anchors drop, engines stop and power is cut. 

When the tide recedes, the first task for the army of scrappers is to cannibalise valuable items including machinery, plumbing, wiring and electronics. All these effects are reused or sold onto brokers who come in search of bargain-priced effects on sale in Alang’s trading posts. Even non-metallic fittings such as lights, bathroom fittings, chairs and crockery don’t go to waste as hotel operators come to the yard to buy useful merchandise.