Why wasn’t she simply cut up on this side of the Atlantic? One untold aspect of the story is that in 1945 when the S.S. Marine Star was built, “hazardous material” was not an issue that received much attention. However, if the ship were scrapped in North America, the HAZ MAT issue would be a major and costly one. There’s very likely lead paint on the hull and elsewhere in the ship. You would find asbestos in the boiler lines and steam runs. The remaining fluids in the ship probably could also qualify as hazardous waste. Lack of HAZ MAT enforcement is a primary reason why India and Turkey are ship-cutting centers. And shall we speculate that ship-cutting labor is a fraction in either of those places of what it would be here?

I’m one of the “Aquarama admirers”; I’ve always had a weakness for her. I was on the ship in 1960. Precious memories. But in the real world, she was obsolete scrap MANY years ago. To repeat, the price of scrap finally rose enough to catch up with the Aquarama.

IMO, it still cost them money to scrap her in Turkey. But it cost less than it would have on this side of the big pond. Probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Again, IMO, they got seriously “upside down” with this ship.

To answer another burning question, she would have been scrapped many years ago had the world market price of scrap not been depressed. The market finally came up to a point where the owner (s) felt like they could finally cut their losses.

Why wasn’t she simply cut up on this side of the Atlantic? One untold aspect of the story is that in 1945 when the S.S. Marine Star was built, “hazardous material” was not an issue that received much attention. However, if the ship were scrapped in North America, the HAZ MAT issue would be a major and costly one. There’s very likely lead paint on the hull and elsewhere in the ship. You would find asbestos in the boiler lines and steam runs. The remaining fluids in the ship probably could also qualify as hazardous waste. Lack of HAZ MAT enforcement is a primary reason why India and Turkey are ship-cutting centers. And shall we speculate that ship-cutting labor is a fraction in either of those places of what it would be here?

I’m one of the “Aquarama admirers”; I’ve always had a weakness for her. I was on the ship in 1960. Precious memories. But in the real world, she was obsolete scrap MANY years ago. To repeat, the price of scrap finally rose enough to catch up with the Aquarama.

IMO, it still cost them money to scrap her in Turkey. But it cost less than it would have on this side of the big pond. Probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Again, IMO, they got seriously “upside down” with this ship.

To answer another burning question, she would have been scrapped many years ago had the world market price of scrap not been depressed. The market finally came up to a point where the owner (s) felt like they could finally cut their losses.

Why wasn’t she simply cut up on this side of the Atlantic? One untold aspect of the story is that in 1945 when the S.S. Marine Star was built, “hazardous material” was not an issue that received much attention. However, if the ship were scrapped in North America, the HAZ MAT issue would be a major and costly one. There’s very likely lead paint on the hull and elsewhere in the ship. You would find asbestos in the boiler lines and steam runs. The remaining fluids in the ship probably could also qualify as hazardous waste. Lack of HAZ MAT enforcement is a primary reason why India and Turkey are ship-cutting centers. And shall we speculate that ship-cutting labor is a fraction in either of those places of what it would be here?

I’m one of the “Aquarama admirers”; I’ve always had a weakness for her. I was on the ship in 1960. Precious memories. But in the real world, she was obsolete scrap MANY years ago. To repeat, the price of scrap finally rose enough to catch up with the Aquarama.

IMO, it still cost them money to scrap her in Turkey. But it cost less than it would have on this side of the big pond. Probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Again, IMO, they got seriously “upside down” with this ship.

To answer another burning question, she would have been scrapped many years ago had the world market price of scrap not been depressed. The market finally came up to a point where the owner (s) felt like they could finally cut their losses.