I'm here to tell you that there have been mass scrapping of passenger ships in the past,
even more severe than what we're seeing today, and cruising has not only survived but thrived.
In the last six months or so a seemingly endless parade of cruise ships have gone
to the scrapyards to be dismantled. The sheer number of cruise ships being
scrapped during the COVID pandemic has captured the attention of the public and the media. Reports
of the decline of cruising characterized by images of cruise ships on the beaches have been beamed
all across the world for months now, and sure the imagery of beached and broken up cruise ships
does make compelling viewing. Ship scrapping or the process of recycling retired ships has existed
for about as long as ships... that is to say it's ancient! But during the boom times, the retirement
and scrapping of ships is more of a trickle than a flood. High demand for ocean travel has always led
to older ships finding a role in a supplementary capacity. For example in the early 20th century,
many of the premier shipping lines ran feeder services and intermediate line voyages
with their older ships. This is similar to how older cruise ships were retained by cruise lines
during the cruise boom of the 1990s and 2000s, even as newer cruise ships were built. Many of the
ships that no longer fit their original line were sold to new operators and managed to draw a crowd
either through offering cheaper or niche products, and there was plenty of demand
to justify keeping the older ships in service for longer. Okay sure, the ships of old are a
far cry from the modern cruise behemoths that we see today, but nevertheless even wooden sailing
ships were recycled and scrapped well before the idea of a cruise was floated. In the roaring 20s
there was an upsurge in tourist travel as such many older ships were put to work as both liners
and on cruise itineraries. But the crash of 1929 and the subsequent impact of the Great Depression
led to mass layoffs of passenger ships. Demand for travel decreased dramatically and it stayed
that way for years. This left lines with little choice but to retire and scrap their old ships,
and a lot of the famous passenger ships of their day were scrapped during this time
this included the Mauretania, the Leviathan and even the Olympic sister ship to the Titanic! But
despite the lasting impacts of the depression, many shipping lines endured and in some cases
even built new ships. This is similar to what we're seeing today with cruise lines in a state
of hibernation yet they're still building and in some cases ordering new ships in anticipation
for the good times to return... You can check out a video I made about the cruise ships being
ordered and built at the moment in the info card or the description below. Fast forward to
the late 40s and 50s and this period of time was considered a golden age for travel. Ocean liners
were still really the only way to travel, though post-war piston driven airliners were improving,
a boost in tourism led to many people taking to the sea for the first time in search of adventure.
But in 1958 everything changed when Boeing introduced its revolutionary 707 jet. This changed
the way people traveled forever and airlines from Pan-American to BOAC, Qantas to Malaysia
Airways swept in and revolutionized travel with fast and efficient jet airplanes. Subsequently
ocean liner travel collapsed... Now this isn't the same sort of collapse that we're seeing
from the impacts of COVID. While COVID impacted all cruise lines at the same time with the same
severity due to the nature of the health-related shutdown, the airlines lured passengers away from
ships over time... slowly at first then faster and faster until almost the entire passenger
shipping industry - as it was - disappeared. This period which took place over several decades
is characterized by the mass extinction of ocean liners and this included ships like Caronia,
Britannic III as well as Queen Mary, SS. France, Arcadia, Orcades, Oronsay ... I'll stop the list
there because it could actually take up the entire video! Some of these ships like Queen
Mary and France were saved, but many more ended up at the breakers with scrapyards in Britain, Taiwan
and Pakistan being inundated with former ocean liners, not to mention ports around the world
where laid up ships sat idle at the time. People thought the decline of passenger ships would
endure but out of the ocean liner extinction a new opportunity arose cruising! Cruising had existed
for decades but the ability for jet aircraft to bring travellers to cruise ports coupled with
the abundance of laid up passenger ships for sale meant new companies such as Carnival Cruise Line
and Norwegian Cruise Line could flourish, and flourish they did. Until 2020, which brings us
full circle. Yes we are seeing an unusually high number of cruise ships scrapped at this time,
yes this situation is highly unusual and yes the cruise industry is in a crisis situation,
but if we look back at history we can see other times of crisis that passenger ships
and shipping lines ultimately overcame. So next time you see a headline about cruise ships going
to scrap just remember that while the number of cruise ships being scrapped is unusual,
scrapping cruise ships is not. And whilst we might miss the individual cruise ships that
are being scrapped the majority of passenger ships are still waiting for the cruise shutdown to end.
If you'd like to know more about ship scrapping and what's been going on during the COVID shutdown
I have linked to videos that I've made on these topics in the description below thanks so much
for watching and I hope you found the video interesting. If you did please don't forget
to give it a like and hit the subscribe button and notification bell so you don't miss future videos.
I would like to send out a huge thank you to Peter Knego for access to his wonderful footage
of the ships being scrapped and Alang. The footage used in this video is from his DVD 'The
Sands of Alang'.
Thank you also to Rob Henderson and Doug Cremer for access to the Henderson and Cremer collection. Thanks
once again for watching and when it's safe for us to travel again, I hope to see you on board.
[Happy Music]