AFTER undertaking her final voyage to a ship recycling yard in Turkey, a Barrow-built aircraft carrier is slowly being melted down to be sold as scrap metal.
In Aliaga, the heart of Turkey’s shipbreaking industry, is the final resting place of HMS Invincible.
When Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, Invincible headed up a task force alongside HMS Hermes, going on to play a crucial role in the war. She later served in Bosnia in 1995 and Iraq in 1998 and 1999.
After she was decommissioned in 2005, Invincible’s fate became a hot topic in the maritime world, ranging from plans to turn the vessel into a Chinese tourist attraction to a campaign to convert her into a floating helicopter pad off the Cumbrian coast.
Despite campaigners’ best efforts to keep Invincible close to the Barrow shipyard where she was built 30 years ago, the Ministry of Defence accepted a £2m bid from Turkish shipbreakers Leyal Ship Dismantling and Recycling Ltd.
The flagship Falklands vessel will be melted into thousands of one metre square blocks of steel and shipped off to other European countries to be used for a variety of new products – from garden chairs to razor blades.
The dismantling process is set to take between six to eight months.
Lorraine Robinson, of Barrow, who led a campaign to have the ship preserved in the town, said she was “gutted” at the dismantling of Invincible.
Miss Robinson said: “It is really sad that they are cutting her up, especially when it is a ship that has had a good history. They don’t seem to think about that.”
Shipbreaking is a growing industry in Turkey, with around 20 yards currently in operation. In 2010, the yards recycled 237 vessels, compared to 127 ships in 2009.
Despite bids to prevent Invincible being sold for scrap, many in the ship recycling industry feel dismantling decommissioned vessels is more sustainable to the environment than sinking elderly tonnage at the bottom of the sea and producing new steel by depleting natural resources.
Leyal’s Dimitri Ayvatoglu said: “More vessels are being offered for recycling. I think people are becoming increasingly aware of their options for green recycling.”
Source:North West Evening Mail. Wednesday, 01 June 2011
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