The German liner Aurora, under amateur restoration for years, finally sank and is now sitting on the bottom. I have followed this ordeal and hats off to the dreamer and his fellow dreamers for even contemplating refurbishing a ship on a small budget. Looks like he bailed recently, then the Aurora gave up and settled on the bottom. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/restoring-the-aurora-a-cruise-ship-with-a-storied-past/
For those that can't or do not want to access CBS, Try these; https://maritime-executive.com/article/well-known-former-cruise-ship-sinks-at-her-berth-in-stockton https://www.marineinsight.com/shipp...ner-leaks-fuel-and-oil-into-california-delta/
Do not Want to access CBS? Do I smell a political question in there? (I got the above links from a senior moderator on this forum, perhaps he is a bit left leaning? At any rate, too bad with this sunken ship, to salvage it and then dispose of, will be expensive to say the least. Making the hull sound then towing it to a Turkish or Indian beach breaking yard will run in the $100,000s, maybe $millions with the Panama Canal transit? Removing all fluids, asbestos and plastics as well as cleaning tanks, etc., then scuttle it in the Pacific to make an artificial reef may cheaper.. I doubt this poor old ship had any kind of liability insurance, as a survey would most likely be required. Any breaking yards on the West Coast converting old ships to nails? (Google said yes, there is a few in the US and one on the West Coast: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ship_breaking_yards
No politics on this Forum. But CBS does suck on that venue. I use ad blockers (really tics U-Tube off). That web site wanted me to enroll, enable cookies AND turn my ad blockers off. I don't do this for any web site. Not when to many other/open sources are out there to gather the same and sometimes just as poor journalism, as I attached.
True, but the Russian Trolls and AI are all over, properly here as well, can’t trust nobody these days. I also use ad blockers, lots of websites tell me to turn ‘em off or get lost. Yeah, me too, good old lines and probably quite seaworthy with thick gauge German steel and quite a displacement despite a modest length/beam. Too bad she saw no proffesional maintenance the last 10 or 20 years and lost her class certification. (I don’t know this for sure, but it most likely happened) She was probably doomed the day she was sold on Craigslist. The Germans called her the Butter Steamer as she had scheduled trips to Helgoland, a tax-free island just West of Germany and slightly South of Denmark where one could buy cheap butter and other tax-free products. Quite a few of my fellow Norwegians back in the day would sail or motor their boats to Helgoland to load up on tax-free booze and cigarettes, products that were taxed 3-400% in Scandinavia to cut down on drinking and smoking. A successful trip to the Sin Island could let you take a year or two of from work and live good. Some got caught and some foundered and was never heard from if the craft was flimsy and the weather bad. (Not that I ever got involved or even thought about it of course) Almost like drug smuggling from Columbia in the 80s, lucrative runs if you could stop after 1 or 2. Nice boat, hate to see her on the bottom.
I used to look at these type of projects and thought it would be cool to do one. I learned moving up from a 32 to a 44 to a 58 that the amount of work just washing or painting increases geometrically. A boat this size one or two people could never catch up to the work. Shame though. Beautiful lines.
Sad to see. I'm wondering how a ship which has lost it's seaworthiness get permission to dock - well, anywhere? I wonder if they had hull insurance? I have no idea of the regs involved, but what's to stop the owner from just walking away now? The salvage cost I'm thinking will be more than the salvage value.