Roblightbody dot com
  • Home
    • What's New?
    • About Rob >
      • QE2 Talks & speaker
    • Contact
  • Rob's Blog
  • Gadgets
  • Ocean Liners
    • Queen Mary 2 >
      • QM2 News in service
      • QM2 News (When New)
      • QM2 News (Pre Float-out) >
        • My Travels
      • QM2 Reviews
      • QM2 A Ship of Superlative Comparisons
    • Queen Elizabeth 2 >
      • QE2 in Dubai (QE2 Today)
      • QE2 Forum (link)
      • My own QE2 Story >
        • My QE2 Photos
        • 2008 Stephen Payne QE2 Lecture
        • 2008 QE2 Last Thoughts
        • 2008 QE2 Clyde Farewell
        • 2008 August QE2 Cruise
        • 2007 December QE2 Cruise
        • 2007 September QE2 Clyde
        • 2005 August QE2 Queensferry
        • 2003 June QE2 Queensferry
        • 1987 QE2 April Bremerhaven >
          • QE2 April 1987 Exterior Photos
          • QE2 April 1987 Interior Photos
      • QE2 News >
        • QE2 Dubai News (2008 to 2015) >
          • Fears grow over bid to turn QE2 into a hotel in Dubai
        • QE2 News 2008
        • QE2 Sold to Dubai Articles (2007)
        • QE2 News 2007
        • QE2 News 2006
        • QE2 News 2002 to 2005
        • QE2 News 1998 to 2001
      • QE2's Name
      • QE2 1987 Rebirth
      • QE2 Reviews 1997 to 2007
      • Speed Queen
      • QE2 Storm Photos
      • QE2 1975 Guide
      • 1969 Shipshapes
      • QE2 Sydney 2006
      • QE2 Cutaways
      • QE2 in 1969
      • QE2 Fuel Economy
      • QE2 Facts
      • Bridgecam Snaps
      • QE2 1995 Freak Wave
      • QE2 Bridge View
    • SS France >
      • SS France Swan Song (2001)
      • 2006 Finalé >
        • Telegraph April 2006
        • Miami Herald
        • AP News May 2006
        • Justin Huggler Article
        • BBC News June 2006
        • July 2006 (MSNBC)
      • Scrapping Allowed (2007)
    • United States >
      • Maiden Voyage
      • NCL Buys SS United States
    • Queen Elizabeth
    • Queen Mary >
      • No rushing Churchill and his ship of state
      • RMS Queen Mary News >
        • 2007 Fate of rusting Queen Mary in the balance
        • 2006 Queen Marys Meet
        • 2004 As ship and work of art, the QM still an original
        • 2001 Is Queen Mary seaworthy?
        • 2000 Sir John Brown Dies
        • 1998 - Queen of Kitsch
    • Normandie
    • Lusitania & Mauritania
    • Aquitania >
      • Aquitania Emails
    • Other Liners >
      • Transvaal Castle
      • Saxonia
      • Ivernia
      • Caronia
  • Cars
    • Classic Mini >
      • My Classic Minis
      • History >
        • End of Mini >
          • FT Sep 2000
          • Glasgow Herald
          • BBC News
          • Autocar March 2000
        • Sexist Adverts
        • John Cooper Dies
      • Brochures
      • My Archive
      • The MPi Minis >
        • Official Launch Documents
        • Classic Mini Postcards
        • MPI Mini Colours and trim, 1997 onwards
        • 1998 - Examples of MPI changes from SPI
        • 1998 MPI Mini Price List
        • Extracts from the 1996 Brochure launching the 1997 model year Minis
      • SPI Mini ACR2 Fault Code Reader
    • First new MINI
    • Ford Puma
    • Mazda MX-5 Miata
    • Austin Princess
    • Favourite Cars
  • PS Waverley
  • Scotland
    • Jeely Piece Song
    • Flower of Scotland
    • Where's the Glasgow?
    • I Belong to Glasgow (link)
  • Chuckles
  • Cool Websites
Home > Ocean Liners > SS France > 2006 Finale > May 2006 (AP News)

Fabled ocean liner heads to scrapyard, sparks safety protest

Michael Casey
Associated Press
May. 14, 2006 12:00 AM
BANGKOK, Thailand - After sliding down the ways in 1960, the SS France became one of the last great trans-Atlantic ocean liners, carrying the likes of artist Salvador Dali and his pet ocelot and taking the Mona Lisa to an exhibition in the United States.

Today, the rust-streaked ship is headed to an ignoble end at a wrecking yard in India. It's also playing a role as the latest symbol for health and environmental activists who are raising concerns about the safety of the long-ignored salvage business.

Activists contend that the once-grand liner is full of asbestos and other toxic materials that will endanger the workers who will break it apart from stem to stern at one of the nautical graveyards dotting the shores of South Asia.Similar protests in February led French authorities to cancel the dismantling of the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau in India after revelations that it also was loaded with asbestos and other substances now banned in the West.

Ship-breaking is a major business, supplying scrap steel and other materials to a region hungry for industrial materials. But critics say its workers, often poor migrants from the countryside, face death or dismemberment from toxic materials, gas explosions and falling hunks of steel.

Port officials in Malaysia, where the France had been anchored in recent months, confirmed Tuesday that the ship had pulled up anchor and was being towed by a pair of tugs toward the shipwrecking center of Alang on India's west coast.

Nazir Kaliwala, who owns International Shipping Co. in India, said he bought the ship for $14.4 million and sold it to a ship-breaking company in Alang.

The environmental group Greenpeace protested the move. The liner "carries over 900 metric tons of asbestos and is contaminated with other toxic material," said Rampati Kumar, a Greenpeace campaigner.

India's Environment Ministry had no comment.

The France never had it easy. It entered service in 1962 - just as jet airliners started to become the primary mode of crossing the Atlantic.

Still, the liner was one of the fastest passenger ships and stretched 1,035 feet - so long it couldn't fit into the locks of the Panama Canal. Its avant-garde design, winding staircase, tuxedo-clad diners and fine cuisine came to symbolize luxury on the high seas.

But the France needed subsidies to stay in business, and the government cut off the aid in 1974. Its owner, the Compagnie General Transatlantique, retired the ship in 1974.

It was sold to an Arab sheik who talked of turning it into a floating museum before Norwegian Cruise Lines bought the liner in 1979.

That company rechristened the ship the SS Norway and spent nearly $80 million converting it into a pleasure cruiser with outdoor swimming pools and sun decks. For two decades, the Norway took 2,000 passengers at a time on weekly trips in the Caribbean.

In 2000, the liner was acquired by Star Cruises. It got a new name last year, Blue Lady, but it hadn't carried passengers since a boiler explosion killed eight crewmen in 2003.

Repairs proved too costly to keep the ship in service. Star Cruises recently confirmed that the ship had been sold, but refused to provide details.

"Sadly, there are so many things stacked against her at the moment that there is little hope for a future where she can be at sea where she belongs," said Devon Scott, the ship's former historian.

Sections

Rob's Blog
​Gadget Reviews

Ships

PS Waverley
Queen Mary 2
Queen Elizabeth 2
RMS Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Mary
More Liners

Cars

Classic Mini
New MINI (2001)
Mazda Miata MX-5
Wedge Princess
Ford Puma
Other Favourites

Everything Else

Whats New
About Rob
Contact Rob
Chuckles
Cool Sites