Posted on 07/21/2021 1:47:40 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The aging Queen Mary could cost the city of Long Beach up to $175 million to preserve and maintain over the next 25 years but it could cost even more — up to $190 million — to recycle for scrap or sink into the ocean.
Docked on the city’s shore since 1967, the former ocean liner has long been a challenge to operate. A 2017 study recommended that as much as $289 million worth of renovations and upgrades were needed to keep parts of the ship from flooding. According to documents filed recently in Bankruptcy Court, the Queen Mary needs $23 million in immediate repairs to prevent it from potentially capsizing.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I suspect the happiest ending for the old gal would be to end up in Corpus with the Lexington. Maybe then she’ll have a chance.
As it is, the Houston ship channel is not a tourist destination.
(sigh)
In the early days of California the cities had several prison ships used as jails.
>>>Why not fill everything below the waterline with self hardening closed cell spray foam?<<<
Phil Swift here. Sounds like a Job for Flex Seal.
In the early 80s, I was on the crew to move the Spruce Goose thru LA to Long Beach. It was all nighttime point to point movement. My team was responsible for the temp lighting needed at all unlit areas and the turns. Hell or high water we had to have every section of the Spruce in it’s daytime rest point by 5am. It wasn’t easy, involved significant co-ordination across several teams. I think Sargent and Lundy ran the show.
I’d gone abroad the Queen Mary on one of my business trips for dinner in the Windsor room. Very impressive dinner and tab, toured the ship, had drinks at one of the ship’s bars, then speaking to the bartender about being an engineer in the Nuke Navy, he arranged for us to get into the engine room which was still very well preserved. Massive dehumidifiers and fans throughout.
Standard operating procedure:
Insure it.
Move it to a new location.
Encounter a storm during the relocation.
Collect insurance.
that’s the best idea - keep it as a tourist attraction/restaurant/hotel. Surely something historic is of more cultural importance than $700K ‘homeless’ apartments
You need a shipyard to scrap. San Diego is a Naval yard. Not sure where you would take it.
Pull it into drydock. Slice it, dice it and recycle it and stop polluting the ocean with garbage boats.
Sailed on the SS United States in the spring of 1969. I was 10 years old at the time and thoroughly enjoyed having the run of the ship. I recall one mid-Atlantic day we spent weathering a ferocious storm that sent the ship listing wildly from side to side. Upon reaching New York, I remember our dining steward happening by while I gawked from a starboard railing at the city skyline and Statue of Liberty, him telling me that this was his home town.
Like the Oriskany, sunk off shore of Florida coast, it takes lots of work to remove what will quickly become trash and just leave the steel hull.
It would probably make for a great dive site if its not sunk too deep.
I’ve only dove the SS Yongala which sank in 1911 off shore of Cairns, Aus.
The best dive I’ve ever done with all the wildlife.
Hon, there was a whole “Unsolved Mysteries” with the great Robert Stack voice-over!
What a great show. When he was the man.
My grandparents took the United States to Europe. I think my mom got to go on it (visit, not travel), but definitely she toured the Andrea Doria, which she adored.
Sell it toTrump!
My Dad took my brother and me to see it at the waterline, shortly after they first moored it there and before they added the rock barrier. We took our outboard boat right up to it and then slapped her hull. Real solid, LOL.
Take it in pieces and reassemble out at Lake Havasu where the London Bridge is. The dry desert air will preserve it.
I looked like a big banana...She had just had a fender bender..and had a fat lip..
Yeah it was fun...Walked around that ship = 4 times. Not a good time...........
McMinnville Oregon. Very impressive to see. For an extra 10$ they let you take a pic in the cockpit,
And it didn’t cost 100s of millions to preserve it.
Take the old ship and sink it on a surf break.
“I looked like a big banana.”
LOL!
We used to stay on the Mary once every year. And then a few years ago I took my granddaughter and we stayed because she had never been. I love the Mary. Like stepping back in time.
If to be sunk, all tanks have to be cleaned, all asbestos and any hazardous material has to be removed from the ship. The ship has to meet the standards that the environmentalists in government have established to scuttle the ship. The same thing is true with scrapping a ship in this country, the contractor is paid for asbestos removal, tank cleaning, hazard remediation. With the price of scrap iron and steel these days, they will have to pay the contractor big bucks for the job. The days of buying old ships and breaking them up for a profit passed years ago.
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