On the Gulf of Cambay is a cruiseliner graveyard. Huge ships go there to die, the contents sold and the metal salvaged and reused. The scale of these ships is immense and the work dangerous.

In the Gujarat Province on the Gulf of Cambay, there is a shanty town called Alang, a place few tourists will ever see. For those who love ships, it is both hellish and holy, for Alang contains a ten mile stretch of beach where these magnificent creations go to die.

The volume of ships that are broken up has created a whole sub industry and very strange houses that contain various cruiseliner decorations.

For several miles along the road before reaching the beach, hundreds of traders’ yards offer everything under the sun. Life vests, engine parts, sofas, partitions, you name it. Nothing is wasted with the resourceful Indians who have made the process of recycling an art. One yard in particular beckoned with a lineup of familiar sofas and a striking panel from the STELLA SOLARIS. “Chariots” by Italian artist Emanuele Luzzati lay in a shaded alcove, having just been removed from the dining room of the former Sun Lines flagship.

The area has a photography ban in place, possibly due to the damage to the environment and the level of danger that the workers face.

A huge tanker would serve as our platform to document the line up of passenger ships on the beach. A vertiginous climb up a mercilessly open network of metal ladders gave us shelter from local authorities since photography is banned in the region.

This doesn’t quite fit in the Abandoned category but it is close so I’m shoe-horning it in.

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