Why so many ships get scrapped during global crises. Cruise Ship Scrapping History Explored.

Mass scrapping of cruise ships: During the boom times, the retirement and scrapping of ships is more of a trickle than a flood. High demand for ocean travel has always led to older ships finding a role in a supplementary capacity. Older cruise ships were retained by cruise lines during the cruise boom of the 1990s and 2000s, even as newer cruise ships were built. Many of the ships that no longer fit their original line were sold to new operators and managed to draw a crowd either through offering cheaper or niche products, and there was plenty of demand to justify keeping the older ships in service for longer. The crash of 1929 and the subsequent impact of the Great Depression led to mass layoffs of passenger ships. Demand for travel decreased dramatically and it stayed that way for years. This left lines with little choice but to retire and scrap their old ships, and a lot of the famous passenger ships of their day were scrapped during this time this included the Mauretania, the Leviathan and even the Olympic sister ship to the Titanic! Fast forward to the late 40s and 50s and this period of time was considered a golden age for travel. Ocean liners were still really the only way to travel, though post-war piston driven airliners were improving, a boost in tourism led to many people taking to the sea for the first time in search of adventure. But in 1958 everything changed when Boeing introduced its revolutionary 707 jet. This isn't the same sort of collapse that we're seeing from the impacts of COVID. While COVID impacted all cruise lines at the same time with the same severity due to the nature of the health-related shutdown, the airlines lured passengers away from ships over time... slowly at first then faster and faster until almost the entire passenger shipping industry - as it was - disappeared. Some of these ships like Queen Mary and France were saved, but many more ended up at scrapyards. People thought the decline of passenger ships would endure but out of the ocean liner extinction a new opportunity arose cruising! Cruising had existed for decades but the ability for jet aircraft to bring travellers to cruise ports coupled with the abundance of laid up passenger ships for sale meant new companies such as Carnival Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line could flourish, and flourish they did. Until today, we are seeing an unusually high number of cruise ships scrapped at this time, and this situation is highly unusual but if we look back at history we can see other times of crisis that passenger ships and shipping lines ultimately overcame. -- CONNECT WITH ME: ▶ SUBSCRIBE for regular cruise ship updates & maritime history: https://bit.ly/38BR2DK ▶ READ: My Maritime History books: https://bit.ly/3nISs3w ▶ CHECK OUT my Cunard history website: https://www.chriscunard.com/ Image Credits: ▶ PETER KNEGO: My thanks to maritime historian Peter Knego for his image and video support. Check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/midshipcentury — Images in this video came from Sands of Alang DVD, details of this and his new DVD about RMS. Windsor Castle can be found at: https://www.midshipcentury.com/torn-castle (this is not paid promotion). ▶ OLYMPIC / MAURETANIA IMAGE: Public Domain (2) - license can be seen: https://bit.ly/3jHfwzj ▶ HENDERSON & CREMER: Thanks to Rob Henderson & Doug Cremer (3). CRUISE SHIPS SCRAPPED OR FLAGGED FOR SCRAP: Monarch, Sovereign, Carnival Fantasy, Carnival Imagination, Carnival Inspiration, Costa Victoria, Marella Celebration, Marella Dream, CMV Astor, Funchal, CMV Magellan, CMV Marco Polo, Horizon, Ocean Dream, Karnika (Pacific Jewel), Satoshi (Pacific Dawn), Grand Celebration, Columbus! -- Thumbnail: Peter Knego Big Red Boat III. Note: Old Marco Polo thumbnail: Andrew Sassoli-Walker https://solentphotographer.com — Music: YouTube Audio Read about CMV Columbus' potential scrapping: https://bit.ly/2ZgHRTv -- #cruisenews #cruising #cruiseship