Heavy metal: Shipbreaker gets biggest project to date with Navy carrier's arrival

Old soldiers never die, they’re just hauled away and cut into scrap.

The USS Saipan, a 27,000-ton, Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship launched in 1974, arrived at its final destination Wednesday afternoon at the Port of Brownsville as it was nursed into a slip at International Shipbreaking Ltd.

Tugboats towed the 820-foot aircraft carrier, also known as a gator freighter, from its mothball berth in Philadelphia on Oct. 28 to begin the long journey down the East Coast, around Florida and across the Gulf of Mexico. The Navy decommissioned the ship in 2007.

Technically designated the ex-Saipan, since being removed from the Naval Vessel Registry, the ship is the largest International Shipbreaking has ever scrapped, says Jason Glascock, the company’s environmental program manager. It’s also one of the biggest vessels to come up the Brownsville Ship Channel, according to port officials. The Saipan is the second Navy ship to be named in honor of the World War II Battle of Saipan.

"It’s going to be a spectacle," Glascock said Tuesday in anticipation of the ship’s arrival.

The dismantling process should take just under a year, he added, noting that the salvage project will employ roughly 250 people during that time. The company will recoup the money it spent towing the ship from Philadelphia, plus some, when it sells the salvaged metal. Glascock said they should be able to recycle most of the ship.

"Recycling vessels, you get very high return of the total volume you start with," he said. "It’s in the upper 90 percentile range."

Asbestos or other hazardous material dismantling crews encounter will be disposed of by trained, licensed personnel according to strict regulations governing the shipbreaking industry, Glascock said.

The Navy will have two of its own people on site each day for the duration to monitor the operation. The ship’s screws, or propellers, will be returned to the Navy, possibly for reuse, since other Tawana-class vessels are still in use.

The Navy paid the incredible sum of two cents to International Shipbreaking to dispense with the Saipan — a penny for the tow and a penny for the vessel. Glascock explained that the Navy is required to enter at least a token sum in its books for such transactions.

Eddie Campirano, port director and CEO, said International Shipbreaking and Esco Marine Inc. are hoping to secure funding through a federal pilot program that would pay for towing two more aircraft carriers of an even larger class than the Saipan to Brownsville for dismantling. The port rarely gets ships of even the Saipan’s size coming up the channel, he said.

"It’s bigger than what normally comes," Campirano said. "I was at a meeting, with the Saipan going by, and it was impressive."