Independence (ship, 1951)
 As Oceanic on her last voyage on February 8, 2008 off San Francisco
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The Independence was built in 1951 as a liner for American Export Lines . After being used by various operators under changing names, it was finally towed to the scrapping yards near Alang in 2008 , where it was supposed to be demolished. Since the ship was loaded with toxic materials, but a targeted was beaching not allowed and the ship before Gopnath on a sandbar launched . At this point the hull broke behind the second chimney, making it impossible to float again.
history
Liner service
The Independence was one of two ships of the MARCOM type P3-S2-DL2. At 23,719 GRT, she was slightly smaller than her sister ship Constitution (23,754 GRT) and, like this one, was built by Bethlehem Steel in Quincy (Massachusetts) in the United States for American Export Lines. She was launched on June 3, 1950, and work on the ship was completed in January 1951. The Independence , like her sister ship, had a black hull. On February 11th of the same year, the ship went on its maiden voyage in the Mediterranean area . On April 12, she left New York for the first time as a passenger liner with the destination Genoa ; later the route was changed to New York - Naples . In 1959 at Newport News Shipbuilding , the front deck structure of both ships was moved almost 7 meters to the bow and raised by one deck. This increased the capacity by more than 100 berths for first class. After this conversion, the accommodation options were estimated at 484 passengers for the first class, 350 for the so-called "cabin class" and 254 for the tourist class. Various films were made during the ship's wedding, including stars such as Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr . At this time, guests such as the then President Harry S. Truman , Alfred Hitchcock , Walt Disney or Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud could also be welcomed. In 1967 the use of both ships was ended because the number of passengers had dropped too much.
In January 1974 both ships were sold to the "Atlantic Far East Line Inc" part of the Orient Overseas Line of the shipping company CY Tung . The ship was renamed Oceanic Independence and, after a conversion with a new passenger capacity of 950 seats, continued to operate in the regular service. It was launched on January 17, 1976 in Hong Kong . During the layover the renaming to Sea Luck I had meanwhile been prepared, but this was not legally implemented and she kept the name Oceanic Independence .
Due to the fact that the ships no longer sailed under the American flag, use in North American waters was initially not possible. The background to this is the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 , which prohibits non-US lines from transporting passengers between two US ports without having moored in a port outside the territory of the United States. This means that the 7-day voyages between the mainland and Hawaii are only possible if the ship is flying the US flag. To make matters worse, this law requires that only ships built in the United States can be flagged as US ships. In 1979, both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives approved a return to the United States. After extensive overhaul and renovation work at Kawasaki Dockyard Co. Ltd. In Kobe (Japan), CY Tung relocated the Oceanic Independence in 1980 to the newly founded American Hawaii Cruises Inc. with American headquarters. The Oceanic Independence now offered 750 passengers in a unit class and was now measured at 22,200 GRT. She left the base in June 1980 for her first trip with the new client from Honolulu. On September 24, 1981, there was a minor incident with property damage, but all passengers were rescued from the ship and flown home. In 1982 American Hawaii Cruises Inc became part of American Global Line, Inc. and the ship was renamed back to Independence . In 1994 the Independence was temporarily taken out of service again because it was overhauled by Newport News Shipbuilding . Here also many parts of the now also the were American Global Line belonging Constitution installed, which already rested at this time. With the final decommissioning of the Constitution , she became the last passenger liner to sail under the American flag. When American Hawaii Cruises went bankrupt in 2001, Independence became the property of the United States Maritime Administration . For this reason, the ship was moved from Honolulu to San Francisco, where it ran on November 8, 2001 under the escort of the fire boat Phoenix .
In February 2003, Norwegian Cruise Line , which also acquired the United States , bought the Independence at auction for US $ 4 million. At that time, the shipping company had received permission to operate cruises under the name NCL America within the ports under US administration. In mid-2006, the ship was renamed Oceanic , at a time when rumors of an imminent demolition were already lingering. In 2007, Norwegian Cruise Line announced that the ship had been sold to an unnamed American company.
Last trip to Alang
On February 8, 2008, the Oceanic left San Francisco with the Pacific Hickory for Singapore , later Dubai . During the voyage, the rumor arose that the ship was to be transferred to a scrapping yard in India or Bangladesh, which in turn led to investigations by the Environmental Protection Agency . The investigation resulted in fines totaling $ 518,500, including $ 32,500 for Global Marketing Systems. The rest for Global Shipping LLC. After that, the ship's track was initially lost.
In October 2009, the Indian authorities found that the ship Platinum-II lying in front of Alang , whose deliberate stranding was planned for dismantling, was actually the Oceanic . According to the authorities, this was provided with false papers and renamed in order to be able to circumvent the requirements relating to the disposal of toxic materials. As part of the further decision-making process, the Ministry of Environment and Forests first intervened and gave its consent to the targeted stranding of the Oceanic . The subsequent controversy over the future of the ship ultimately led to the ship being laid up on a sandbank at Gopnath on the Gujarat coast. This measure was justified by the fact that, in addition to the toxic materials that are ultimately likely to be found in all ships built in the 1950s and 1960s, traces of radioactivity had been found in their smoke detector system.
Presumably due to changing water levels and ground contact, the ship's hull was raised again and again and then hit the ground, so that the hull broke apart in about the rear third in March 2010. In January 2011 there was nothing to be seen of the ship.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Micke Asklander: T / S Independence (1951). In: Facta om Fartyg. Retrieved February 5, 2008 (Swedish).
- ↑ a b 'Toxic' US ship banned in India. In: BBC News. November 10, 2009, accessed May 23, 2010 .
- ↑ Hilmar König: "Giftpott" anchored off Alang. Largest ship cemetery in the world in India is back in the headlines. In: Neues Deutschland , October 20, 2009 ( neue-deutschland.de )
- ↑ a b c SS Independence & SS Constitution. Retrieved March 15, 2012 .
- ^ Independence History - Ocean Liner Museum '14. (No longer available online.) The AJN Transport Britain Collection, archived from the original on September 28, 2010 ; Retrieved January 22, 2012 ( History of Independence , English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Last US Ocean Liner Heads into the Unknown . In: San Francisco Chronicle . February 9, 2008 ( online [accessed February 9, 2008]).
- ^ Independence sails into a new set of problems . In: San Francisco Chronicle . February 21, 2008 ( online [accessed February 21, 2008]).
- ↑ $ 518,500 EPA penalties for export of SS Oceanic (ex SS Independence). Retrieved March 19, 2012 (English).
- ↑ Tehelka Magazine . tape 6 , no. 42 , October 24, 2009 ( online ). tehelka.com ( Memento of the original from April 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Peter Knego: Sad EndEPENDENCE. June 13, 2010, accessed September 24, 2012 .
