SS Independence
As Oceanic on her last trip on February 8, 2008, San Francisco
Oceanic Independence (1974, 1975-1982 ) Sea Luck I (1974-1975) Oceanic (2006-2009) Platinum II (2009-2011)
IMO Nummber = 5160180
The Independence was built in 1951 as a liner for American Export Lines. After use in changing by different operators under the name she was finally towed at Alang shipbreaking 2008, where they should be discontinued. As the ship was loaded with toxic materials, but a targeted stranding was not allowed and launched the ship before Gopnath on a sandbank. At this point, the fuselage broke behind the second chimney, so that a refloating was impossible.
History
Line service
The Independence was one of two ships of MARCOM - type P3 -S2 - DL2. She was with 23 719 GRT slightly smaller than her sister ship Constitution ( 23,754 GRT) was, like this, of Bethlehem Steel in Quincy (Massachusetts ) built in the United States for American Export Lines. Your launching fell on June 3, 1950, work on the ship were completed in January 1951. The Independence had as its sister ship a black hull. On February 11 of the same year the ship went on its maiden voyage in the Mediterranean, on April 12, she left the first time as a passenger ship of the line New York with the aim of Genoa, later the route to New York was - Naples changed. 1959 at Newport News Shipbuilding almost 7 meters was measured at two ships, the front of the deck structure added to the bow and increases to a deck. This capacity has been increased by over 100 berths for the first class. After this conversion, the accommodation option with 484 passengers for the first class, 350 for the so-called "Cabin Class" and 254 for the tourist class was estimated. During the wedding of the ship several films, among others, with stars like Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr were filmed. At this time, guests such as former President Harry S. Truman, Alfred Hitchcock, Walt Disney or Abd al Aziz ibn Saud were to be welcomed. 1967, the use of both ships was ended because the number of passengers were dropped too much
In January 1974, both ships were at the "Atlantic Far East Line Inc " part of the Orient Overseas Line of the shipowner CY Tung sold. The ship was renamed the Oceanic Independence and operated after a renovation with a new passenger capacity of 950 seats on scheduled flights. On 17 January 1976, she was launched in Hong Kong. During the Aufliegzeit the renaming was meanwhile been prepared on Sea Luck I, but this was not implemented and applied and they kept the name Oceanic Independence.
Due to the fact that the ships not sailing under the American flag, an application was initially in North American waters not possible at first. Background is the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, which prohibits non-US lines to transport passengers between two U.S. ports without moored in a lying outside the territory of the United States harbor. Thus, the 7 -day travel between the mainland and Hawaii are only possible if the ship is flying the U.S. flag. To make matters worse, that this Act requires to be flagged as U.S. ships only in the United States built ships. 1979 voted to both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives a return to the United States. After extensive overhaul and renovation work at Kawasaki Dockyard Co. Ltd.. in Kobe (Japan) moved C.Y. Tung Oceanic Independence in 1980 to the newly founded American Hawaii Cruises Inc. with American seat The Oceanic Independence now offered 750 passengers in a device class place, it has now been measured at 22,200 GRT. She left the base in June 1980 from their first ride with the new principal of Honolulu. On September 24, 1981, was a minor incident involving property damage, but all the passengers were rescued from the ship and flew home. In 1982, the American Hawaii Cruises Inc part of the American Global Line, Inc. and the ship was again changed back to Independence. In 1994, the Independence was again temporarily put out of service because it was overtaken at the Newport News Shipbuilding. Here also many parts of the now also the American Global Line belonging Constitution were installed, which rested at this point already. With the final withdrawal of the Constitution it was the last sailing under the American flag passenger liner. Independence was the property of the United States Maritime Administration through the bankruptcy of American Hawaii Cruises in 2001. For this reason, she was transferred from Honolulu to San Francisco, where she broke in on 8 November 2001 under the escort of the fire boat Phoenix.
In February 2003, the Norwegian Cruise Line bought, which includes the United States acquired the Independence at auction for $ 4 million U.S.. The shipping company had received at that time the permission to perform under the name of NCL America cruises within the standing under U.S. administration ports. In mid-2006 the ship was renamed Oceanic; this., at a time when already stopped the rumor of an impending demolition 2007 announced that Norwegian Cruise Line, the ship was sold to undisclosed American company.
Last trip to Alang
On 8 February 2008, the Oceanic left in tow of the Pacific Hickory San Francisco with destination Singapore, Dubai later. During this trip, the rumor arose that the ship to a scrap yard in India or Bangladesh should be transferred, which in turn led to an investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency. The investigation ended in fines of 518 500 U.S. $ total, including $ 32,500 for the Global Marketing Systems. The rest of Global Shipping LLC. After initially lost the track of the ship.
In October 2009, noted the Indian authorities that the ahead Alang ship Platinum -II, which targeted stranding was scheduled for scrapping, was in fact the Oceanic. This had been equipped and renamed according to the authorities with false papers in order to circumvent the requirements relating to the disposal of toxic materials. As part of the further decision-making initially intervened, the Ministry of Environment and Forests and gave his approval to the specific stranding of Oceanic. The subsequent controversy over the future of the ship ultimately led to the fact that the ship was launched in Gopnath on the coast of Gujarat on a sandbank. This measure was justified by the fact that, traces of radioactivity were found in their smoke alarm system in addition to the toxic materials that should make it possible to find in all the ships that were built in the 1950s and 1960s.
Probably due to changing water levels and grounding of the ship's hull was raised repeatedly and then beat on reason, so that the fuselage broke apart about the rear third in March 2010. In January 2011, there was nothing to see from the ship