Billion dollar carrier sells for a penny

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


First off (this is in general, not specifically to you Wrabbit), it's not a "billion dollar carrier". It's a conventional powered carrier, that cost about $217 million at commissioning.

Secondly, and this is to your point Wrabbit, they offered her for a museum years ago, and the offer was open for several years, and nobody even expressed interest.

So now we're at the point where they can't give her away, and it's going to cost a lot to keep her in mothballs, and even more to sink her. So they came up with the best solution possible. Now the new owner has to pay the towing and scrapping costs.

MystikMushroom
If I would have known it was going for a penny, I would have rallied ATS members to all buy it! We could put a satellite dish on it, tow it into international waters and create our own ISP! Sort of like SeaLand wanted to do:

Sealand was founded as a sovereign Principality in 1967 in international waters, six miles off the eastern shores of Britain. The history of Sealand is a story of a struggle for liberty. Sealand was founded on the principle that any group of people dissatisfied with the oppressive laws and restrictions of existing nation states may declare independence in any place not claimed to be under the jurisdiction of another sovereign entity. The location chosen was Roughs Tower, an island fortress created in World War II by Britain and subsequently abandoned to the jurisdiction of the High Seas.'

SeaLand

For a while SeaLand was trying to break into the ISP business at one point...

ATS could have their own floating community! We can have Zaph work on getting the runway operational for all the planes

edit on 23-10-2013 by MystikMushroom because: (no reason given)

Snoop Lion should buy it! He could use a floating island in international waters... and could actually afford that depending on how he cut the costs and income from it.

He tried to buy Liechtenstein.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I was referring to the accrued value of the ship (it could be argued that it is still worth quite a bit in spite of the sunk cost which makes it worth more on paper since the time of commission, e.g. current political affairs.)

MrSpad
I am suprised anybody bid on this. The cost to trasport this sucker and all the regulations (like having to cut into 5ft or smaller pieces) etc. makes it hard to see how anybody will see much of a profit off of it. It would have been nice to see as a musuem but I guess the fund raising was not near enough. Well at least it is not costing us anything.

Right? the logistics on this is nuts, if it took billions to build you can't just pick up some dudes with crow bars at the local HD to go at it...

It takes infrastructure the cost of which are insane.

ETA: THANK YOU ZAP! rational thinking from someone in the know.

One of the ships that I served aboard was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1995. It was not nearly as large as a carrier, and sold for over $268,000

USS Plymouth Rock, '___'-29

reply to post by benrl


If the choice is between the breaker yard and the mothball fleet (Giant version), then yeah... giving it to the breakers in Texas makes sense. I first thought about the profit this must be to them, but then on thinking more? No... Not THAT much profit. They have inherited a big floating nightmare too.

That must be a monument to the overuse of asbestos, among other things, and that garbage sure isn't recyclable or marketable. It's nothing but liability and cost until it gets to a final resting spot. I'm not sure what else is in/on something like that, but there must be plenty when nothing will remain in the end.

I still like the research vessel idea. You could literally never, ever beat it for capability and all around power. It's not like the big universities couldn't afford to pitch in, refit it and use it.

reply to post by teachtaire


Weight=100,000-106,000 metric tons ton=2000 bls Scrap Steel= .05-.10/lb that is easily 10 million is scrap metal alone.

A while back I found an old decommissioned "Whiskey Class" Russian diesel submarine for sale. Asking price? $500,000. How awesome would it be to turn it into a floating commune? You could grow vegetables with areoponic technology, and strap solar panels to to top to supplement power. Also, you could always have a semi-rigid inflatable (like a Zodiac) to use for fishing.

Oh, I'd have to paint it yellow. MystikMushroom's yellow submarine!

ParanoidAmerican
reply to post by teachtaire

 

Weight=100,000-106,000 metric tons ton=2000 bls Scrap Steel= .05-.10/lb that is easily 10 million is scrap metal alone.

and whats the ratio of loss for the scrap process?

I mean if we want to get all technical.

Add labor hours, Underwater Welders and demo dont go for cheap either.

Add Hazmat assurances to make sure the process is clean.

Tack on existing infrastructure cost based on having to MOVE, Store, and tear down a vessel of such size.

No one wants to pay for it for a reason.

Eta: I would love a super car, but if I can't afford the gas, ins, taxes, and maintenance on it nor the garage space to store it, it does no one any good.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


Not as cool but I found a decommission PT boat that was pretty crazy for like 90k, would be awesome to have such a boat.

Another thing is decommissioned silos, I always wanted one but than again Ive always had aspirations of super villainy.

reply to post by teachtaire


Is there a place I can go to buy these things?? Ill live on it.

With all the environmental regulations the scraper will not make very mush money
With the toxins and Hazardous Materials that will have to be removed and sent to special dumps plus the oil waste from the fuel tanks the government was lucky to find a scraper in the US that would take it.

The fact is there is only one large ship scraper left in the US and they are in Texas

hknudzkknexnt
reply to post by teachtaire

 

Is there a place I can go to buy these things?? Ill live on it.

Yes, here is a link to a small listing.

Boats for Sale

Most people don't realize what costs are incurred in recycling something that toxic. Sure, its mostly metal and that has value. Getting the value out however is not that easy in this case. Besides being filled and covered with Asbestos, Lead, PCBs, fuel oil, the EPA regulations for decontamination procedures in the US make it a wash.

Usually metal that is that contaminated is sent to China. They are less concerned about the cost of their environment. The risk of sinking in a storm or setting adrift in a seal lane prohibits being towed to China. It has to be cut up here and before that can happen it must be decontaminated.

Even then, Western Hemisphere refineries wouldn't let that crap anywhere near their furnaces.

Even the paint has lead in it. Scraping the whole ship? Steam cleaning the fuel tanks, oil and hydraulic lines? Unwrapping miles of asbestos insulation from pipes and paying to dispose of all the contaminated residue?

The salvage and refining industry is doing the government a favor by taking it off their hands. Thats why the "cost" is only a penny.

intrptr
Most people don't realize what costs are incurred in recycling something that toxic. Sure, its mostly metal and that has value. Getting the value out however is not that easy in this case. Besides being filled and covered with Asbestos, Lead, PCBs, fuel oil, the EPA regulations for decontamination procedures in the US make it a wash.

Usually metal that is that contaminated is sent to China. They are less concerned about the cost of their environment. The risk of sinking in a storm or setting adrift in a seal lane prohibits being towed to China. It has to be cut up here and before that can happen it must be decontaminated.

Even then, Western Hemisphere refineries wouldn't let that crap anywhere near their furnaces.

Even the paint has lead in it. Scraping the whole ship? Steam cleaning the fuel tanks, oil and hydraulic lines? Unwrapping miles of asbestos insulation from pipes and paying to dispose of all the contaminated residue?

The salvage and refining industry is doing the government a favor by taking it off their hands. Thats why the "cost" is only a penny.

Exactly, this is why most of the ships in my small listing which approached the size of an aircraft carrier are being sold for $1.

Brb, buying some boats.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


If I ever hit the lotto....lol, or find some bags of drug money that fall from the sky from a drug cartel plane as it elludes an ATF task force....

I will buy such a vessel for ATS.

I dont even want to be captain. I will be happy as long as I get private quarters onboard and get to do what ever I want so long as it doesnt interfere with ship functions.

Also. We have to call it the enterprise.

reply to post by teachtaire

Exactly, this is why most of the ships in my small listing which approached the size of an aircraft carrier are being sold for $1.

Brb, buying some boats.

They won't accept a bid from anyone not certified to handle it. Only the biggest salvage operators are drawing straws to see who has to take it. The "winner" groans...

reply to post by ParanoidAmerican


Wrong. Her light displacement was 56,600 tons. She's much lighter now, as they removed all her equipment, engines, etc.

reply to post by benrl


You would be suprized how many "private companies" are owned by overseas companies or governments, that just raised more questions. Never does an American business get anything free unless there are backdoor dealings, there is much more to this approx 200 million scrap deal, carriers have tons and tons of steel, brass, alum, stainless, copper, etc,etc....

reply to post by teslahowitzer


It may have been a typo

reply to post by intrptr


The US Navy removed all asbestos from their fleets in the late 70s on, and even the 1200psi main steam lines were refitted with newer fiber materials, not as durable as the former but less toxic, I know this cause I was there.....