When you are looking for a solution to what you are told is an architectural problem - remember, it might not be a building.
/// Peter Cook and Ron Herron

Up until the 1980s, ship breaking occurred solely in the USA and UK, however due to rising costs and health and safety regulations it became too costly for ship owners to sell their ships to yards for breaking.

Soon ship owners began to bribe corrupt African officials to allow them to discard ships in their bays at a fraction of the cost of legally selling their ships to ship yards in USA or UK.

Most recently, ship breaking beaches in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been paying ship owners to purchase their ships due to the sell-on value of the materials and minimal labour costs. However, this practise allows for inhumane working conditions and the pollution of the oceans.

To combat these conditions, America has become the first country to put in place regulations that states USA warships shall only be broken in America. New laws and regulations will make this common place throughout the world.
Currently there is a global demand for ship recycling centres. Due to the manufacturing and ship building  heritage of Kingston-upon-Hull and ease of access to the city by water, it would be an ideal location for ship recycling services. 
At present when ships are recycled they are broken apart and made into lesser materials which eventually shall end up in landfill. The aim of new ship recycling facilities is a ‘cradle2cradle’ methodology where materials will be reused for the same purposes in new ships on a continuous basis as decomissioned ships become the materials for new ships.
One of the UK’s most recognized ships, HMS Ark Royal, was recently decomissioned and sold for scrap to a Turkish ship yard. The Ministry of Defence have already said that when the HMS Illustrious is decommissioned they want it to remain in the UK, and are looking for innovative proposals.

This project proposes using the HMS Illustrious as the catalyst for the ship recycling facilities in Kingston-upon-Hull by acting as a base within the Hull Estuary for ship recycling workers from Hull. It shall be renovated to provide the means to facilitate ship recycling to ships and provide education facilities to teach Marine Design and Naval Architecture..

Hull was one of the three major shipbuilding centres by the end of the 18th century. Due to the size and weight of the vessels, ship builders were located directly adjacent to the rivers so they had access by water for raw materials such as timber. Most of this was shipped from north-east Scotland. One of the cities most recognized ship builders was William Gibson, who mainly built timber vessels from their yard located east of the riverHull, between 1805-1897. Hull produced the worlds first purpose built steam trawler, the Zodiac, at the end of the 19th century

By the late 17th century hull was suppling ships to the royal navy, such as the Scout and Otter, 382 and 365tons respectively, built by Peter Atkinson. Hull developed a strong reputation for quality navel building war vessels for Turkey, Japan, Germany, Chile and Brazil. There are currently 2shipyards that remain in operation in east yorkshire. JR Hepworth of Paull founded in 1932-3 and the Yorkshire Dry Dock located at lime street, hull. boat repairers also exist, such as Dunston ship repairs.

While ships can be dismantled in a safe and environmentally sound way that aids in global recycling efforts and provides good employment opportunities, the majority of ship owners choose to maximise their profits by selling their ships to shipbreaking yards in countries where environmental law and workers’ rights are poorly enforced, lax or non-existent. Paying workers as little as a dollar a day and making little or no investment in equipment and infrastructure to make their yards safe and clean, ship breakers on the beaches of South Asia pay ship owners up to ten times as much per ton of steel as a ship recycler based in a developed country.

In the search for maximum profits, the vast majority of the world’s fleet is unscrupulously sold and dismantled on the beaches of the worlds’ poorest countries. Today, approximately 80 percent of end-of-life ships are sent to the beaches of Chittagong in Bangladesh, Alang in India and Gadani in Pakistan. In Bangladesh, the country which currently accepts the greatest number of end-of-life ships, migrant workers from poor northern villages, desperate for any income after losing their land to flooding, dismantle mammoth carcasses of old ships by hand. Without training, access to labour unions or protective gear these workers labour under dangerous conditions which few other countries would ever accept. The absence of reliable statistics makes any assessment of the number of accidental deaths linked to shipbreaking on the beaches difficult, but there are strong indications, when adding also deaths due to toxic waste-related illnesses, t hat the number exceeds one hundred every year. Even more workers get seriously injured. In addition, an investigation by the International Federation for Human Rights found that at least 20 percent of the workers in the shipbreaking yards of Chittagong are less than 15 years old.

Handling these materials in the primitive and uncontrollable beach operations of South Asia inevitably leads to occupational diseases and serious pollution. Chronic health effects result from workers’ exposure to asbestos, lead and other heavy metals, organotins, such as the extremely toxic organic tin compound tributyltin (TBT) used in anti-fouling paints, and oily wastes containing toxic

01. Inventory of onboard hazardous/ polluting wastes
Prior to arrival, or alternatively on arrival at the facility, an inventory survey of the vessel should be carried out. The survey will identify, quantify and locate the types of wastes on board and will result in an inventory list of hazardous wastes and other wastes. A thorough vessel survey can also be used for the purpose of planning the sequence and nature of the work to be executed, for example, can asbestos containing structures be marked to facilitate the removal. 

Following the inventory of hazardous substances onboard the ship, chemical safety data sheets should be made available for each of the hazardous substances identified in the inventory. The requirements of the UN Globally Harmonized System for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals as well as the UN Recommendations on Transport of Dangerous Goods should be followed concerning the labelling of hazardous chemicals and their storage. Reference should also be made to the information on the ILO international instruments (Conventions, Recommendations, Codes of Practice) relevant to ship-breaking operations, as well as on important information sources on chemical safety.

02. Removal / cleaning – liquids, inc. fuels and oils
Prior to cutting, the ship should be cleared of all residual materials. This may be carried out prior, or at a cleaning station at the facility. Cleaning of, for example, cargo tanks, bunker and fuel tanks, bilge and ballast compartments, sewage tanks, etc. should be performed in order to ensure that the ship is presented for dismantling in a clean and safe condition. Wastewater and any used solvents from the cleaning station must be contained and properly treated. All combustible liquids and materials are removed to make the vessel safe for hot work. This process will continue during the entire dismantling process. During removal, actions should include containment; whilst wet - booms should be placed around the ship, when dry - transfer arrangements (pumping/ pipe -work, etc.) should include arrangements for the containment of any leakage.

03. Securing
To ensure that working procedures and operations are undertaken in a safe manner, a process of securing the vessel is required. This should emphasis two aspects:
- Safe access to all areas, compartments, tanks, etc. ensuring breathable atmospheres 
- Safe conditions for hot work, including cleaning/ venting, removal of toxic or highly flammable paints from areas to be cut, and testing/ monitoring before any hot work is performed.

04. Removal of equipment 
Consumable and loose equipment is removed first. Reusable components are removed as they become accessible . Fixtures, anchors, chains, engine parts and propellers are examples of components that are removed during this step.

05. Removal of hazardous / polluting substances
The pre-prepared inventory identifies hazardous/ polluting substances (asbestos-containing material, PCBcontaining material, etc). These are carefully removed and disposed of as they become accessible. In cases where these substances are encased or enclosed in components or structural parts, removal can take place after these have been brought into drydock.

06. Dismantling
A safe and practical cutting sequence is dependent upon which adopted method is used (dry-dock, moored). A specific plan for an actual dismantling facility should be drawn up. This should form a base frame for the ship -specific dismantling plan.

07. Storage, recycling and disposal
The waste stream arriving from dismantling is sorted/ segregated, and materials for recycling are separated and prepared for processing. Hazardous wastes and other wastes must be stored and disposed of according to applicable laws and regulations.