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| The two old Marine Atlantic ferries, the MV Caribou, left, and MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood, are seen docked in Sydport on Thursday. Steve Wadden - Cape Breton Post |
The ferries formerly known as the
Caribou and the Joseph and Clara Smallwood both appear to be bound for the
scrap heap.
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| MV Caribou and MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood |
While nothing is official, ship
watchers who make a hobby of photographing and tracking large vessels say data
suggests the ferries are bound for Alang ,
India
According to Greenpeace, ships brought
to Alang are run aground on the beach. Workers then go aboard and dismantle the
ships for scrap. Environmental groups have condemned the lack of worker safety
and the poor environmental practices at Alang.
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| The MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood departs Port aux Basques for its final passenger crossing. — Photo by Aethne Hinchliffe |
Jarrod David is one of the many east-coast
ship watchers who have been keeping their eyes on the ferries. The Arichat, N.S.
man said he tracked the ships online after they left North
Sydney by using the website Marinetraffic.com. The website uses
Automatic Identification System numbers to provide near-real time data on
ships’ locations.
Mr. David tracked both ships across the
Atlantic, but data is not available for the eastern side of the Suez Canal . He lost track of their exact location there.
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| MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood |
Mr. David has also been able to keep
tabs on the ferries through their IMO ship identification numbers. These
numbers are assigned to ships when they are first registered and do not change.
By plugging the Caribou and Smallwood’s
numbers into the website Equasis.org, he has been able to find that both ships
are now owned by Best Oasis Ltd., based out of India
Best Oasis Ltd. Is a subsidiary of
Priya Blue Industries Pvt Ltd. Best Oasis describes itself on its website as a
company created to “serve its customers in the ship recycling industry,” while
Priya Blue Industries describes itself as “one of the established and leading
recycling units in Alang/Sosiya (Gujarat, India).”
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| MV Caribou |
Equasis.org lists both ferries as “to
be broken up.”
Both ferries are listed on Best Oasis’
website under the heading “Achievements.”
The ships are numbers eight and nine on
a list of 10 ships; ships numbered one though 6 have dates listed for when
they were beached, many with Alang listed as the beach.
Attempts to contact Best Oasis Ltd. were
unsuccessful.
Another online source, a blog called
The Ship Scrapping List, lists the Smallwood as bound for Alang , India
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| MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood 1990-2011 |
Mr. David said he is somewhat surprised
the ships are being sold for scrap so soon, given that the Caribou is about 25
years old and the Smallwood is only about 21 years old.
He said older gulf ferries such as the
Nautica and the Atlantic are still being used.
But, he says, there is little doubt the
ships are due to be broken up at Alang.
He and other ship watchers have
contacts there who will be watching for them and he hopes to get a picture if
and when they arrive at the beach.
Source: Gulf News. Brodie Thomas. 11 October 2011
1 comment:
The 5th picture down the page; or the 2nd from the bottom, is not the MV Caribou, it is the MV Atlantic Vision
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