India's first aircraft carrier slips into history

Times News Network ^ | 11/22/2014 | V Narayan

[Robert A Cook PE]

They run them aground like that on the beaches: Then tear then apart wearing nothing but barefeet with muscle-power and torches.

[X Fretensis]

Now days they do. A couple of years back, American ship breakers paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for decom. naval and Marad ships. When scrap prices were high, U.S. breakers can make money. With OSHA and EPA requirements for hazardous material removal and disposition in place, scrap prices have to be very hi in order to make a profit. Before scrap prices spiked, the Navy and Marad had to pay to have ships broken up.

[Kenny Bunk]

I wish I known about this sooner. A surplus Parsons Geared Turbine would have made a perfect auxiliary for my trusty Pearson Triton. It can get pretty boring motoring along through the Doldrums at -5knts with the old Atomic 4.

BTW, enough with the arch comments on the Indian Breaker Yards! I can personally assure you that these chaps go all-out to observe every applicable environmental regulation! The workers receive many rupees toward minimum wage and are issued with state'o'the-art PPE, as per the Worthy Oriental Gentleman's version of OSHA. Did you not notice the elaborate safety gear worn by the cutting torch crew? (They were nowhere near anything flammable, anyway.) Safety? Why no more than 8 or 10 teens will die during the scrapping process. (Of course, if we are talking pre-teen females, that may be slightly higher.)