The Ghost Fleet of the Recession - Singapore

[Patient]

I thought many of you would find this interesting.

Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession | Mail Online

"The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination - and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year.."

"...It's the same with all the ships parked here, and there are a lot of them. Close to 500. An armada of freighters with no cargo, no crew, and without a destination between them."

Google Maps Link

[James S]

I was in Subic Bay a few months ago and saw a similar site...apparently its all about where the cheep moorings are!

[Talbot]

A cyclone through there is going to make the insurance people winge

[cat man do]

AIS from 8/1/09 (top right corner)



Perhaps the Singapore posters can tell us whether its any worse than normal years, not just the years when the economy has been booming.

[MarkJ]

Certainly the ships are there... there's lots of them. We sailed through them all accidently the other day (read some other post for why LOL)

There was a fair bit of movement around them, tugs etc comeing and going. Certainly there must be some just stuck there, but I think it would probabl;y be normal as Singapore is the shipping hub of asia.
It would be like looking in the main Avis car rental lot. They would have a huge reserve carpark full of vehicles somewhere all waiting, at different stages, for deployment etc. Its a reserve of vehicles, it doesnt mean they are not being used... just not used now.

This looked like a reserve of ships. In percentage of all ships on the high seas probably not a large percentage.

?

Mark

[Aussiesuede]

For the record, 80% of the ships on the high seas which are homeported in Singapore are sitting idle. That's what accounts for these pics. They are sitting at anchor because there are no orders for their usage. These pics are from March 2009.

http://smartenergygroups.com/samotag...urns-less-fuel



More pics:

[MarkJ]

Those pics didnt work, Aussie. Can you check the link please?

[Starbuck]

Talbot, he say:
A cyclone through there is going to make the insurance people winge.

Wince + cringe = "winge"

That's how I figger it.

[Aussiesuede]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Those pics didnt work, Aussie. Can you check the link please?

oops.

Try these:




An economy in recession burns less fuel » Smart Energy Groups | your energy aware community « Keywords: peak oil, carbon, emissions, downturn

[SariTimur]

As MarkJ says, During the hayday Singapore had a similar amount of ships in harbour the difference then and now is they were moving and they were mostly in Singapore. Now they are stacked and a lot are in Malaysia and Karimun as Singapore requires a skeletal crew on board, even when stacked, and the others do not. A friend in the shipping business said there is more cargo capacity laid up right now than even existed 15 years ago. Not sure if that is an exageration or not but an interesting point. I know just a few years ago when I was active in the shipyards of Japan and Korea they were busy. My contacts say now very quiet!

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by Starbuck

Wince + cringe = "winge" That's how I figger it.

winge = Austalian term meaning :

verb: complain in an irritating manner
noun: whine, irritating complaint

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Talbot

winge = Austalian term meaning :
verb: complain in an irritating manner
noun: whine, irritating complaint

To “winge” is to whine and complain (moan, grumble, grouse, gripe, carp, etc.), and is a misspelling of “whinge”, a British* word for whine.

* from the Old English “hwinsian” to whine

[osirissail]

Besides all the ships there are thousands of brand new to old airliners in storage in the southwestern US deserts.
[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/JAMESG%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG]

[Endojoe]

There's a pretty impressive collection of mothballed military birds sitting out there too...

Scroll around on this for a bit...

Thats a lot of tax dollars cooking out there in the desert sun.

[Hydra]

Davis Monthan AFB is well known as a boneyard for old aircraft, military and civilian. When zooming in the picture, it's obvious that these will not fly anymore.

It's very different for ships anchored around Singapore. But look at this:

Alain