Big ‘fish’ for Galloo: historic cruise vessel contains 12 000 tonnes of scrap     

Belgium’s metal recycler Galloo is preparing to dismantle and recycle one of the oldest cruise ships in the world, the Astoria.

Galloo was the sole bidder at a recent auction for the vessel, which dates from 1948 and has been in the port of Rotterdam since 2022. According to Belgian media reports, the recycler bought the ship for EUR 200 000.

Metals, wood, glass, plastics

The Astoria sailed under the Portuguese flag and must therefore be dismantled at a European-approved recycling yard. Galloo has the expertise for dismantling, depollution and recycling end-of-life ships at the port of Ghent.

The Astoria is 160 metres long and contains more than 12 000 tonnes of materials, says Gallo, including ferrous and non-ferrous metals, wood, glass and plastics. Galloo claims it will recycle 97% into renewable raw materials.

Disaster at sea

The Astoria, built in in Sweden in 1948 as the Stockholm, is notorious for its collision with the Andrea Doria from Italy in 1956, which killed dozens of people. The Doria sank but the Stockholm survived and continued to sail under various names: Völkerfreundschaft, Athena, Azores and, since 2016, the Astoria.

Until 2020, the ship sailed for cruise companies but, after the bankruptcy of Cruise & Maritime Voyages and the Covid  pandemic, it was taken out of service.

More on Galloo’s ship recycling activities in the September Issue of Recycling International.