According to the Navy, this was to avoid logistical, operational, ecological and economic losses for the Brazilian state. Nature and environmentalists had previously protested against it. The “Sao Paulo”, first in service with France as “Foch”, then the flagship of the Brazilian Navy, was decommissioned in 2018. After that, the 266 meter long ship should have been scrapped in Turkey. Full of asbestos, but it wasn’t allowed to dock there.
The odyssey of the warship with an unloaded displacement of over 24,000 and a maximum of almost 34,000 tons had begun after it had bought a Turkish company for scrapping in 2021, but the ship could not find a port where it could have docked. The reason for this are environmentally hazardous materials on board, above all asbestos, which used to be installed in many ships. Last year, the “Sao Paulo” had to turn back at the Strait of Gibraltar on its course towards the Aegean, CNN reported on Wednesday.
Oldest aircraft carrier in the world
The aircraft carrier, built from 1957, entered service with the French Navy six years later, originally under the name “Foch”. He served there until the Brazilian Navy bought him in 2000 for twelve million dollars (just under eleven million euros at today’s exchange rate) and in 2001 he was christened “Sao Paulo”. From that point on, the ship was the only aircraft carrier in the Brazilian Navy. The predecessor “Minas Gerais”, built in Great Britain and until then flagship, was retired.
At the time of its decommissioning, the “Sao Paulo” was the oldest operational aircraft carrier in the world. She was replaced again by a British warship. After being sold to Turkey for almost 1.9 million euros, she should have been scrapped at Sök Denizcilik in the Aliaga scrapyards in the Bay of Candarli in the Aegean Sea. In August 2022 she started the journey there.
End of an odyssey
However, the Environment Ministry in Ankara assumed that several tons of asbestos, which is considered carcinogenic, were installed in the ship and revoked the permit to dock when the “Sao Paulo” was off Gibraltar.
The aircraft carrier was towed back to Brazil by the Dutch ALP Guard, lay in front of the port of Suape for some time, but was also no longer allowed to dock there and was towed into international waters off the coast and finally sunk.
It is not known in detail which contaminated sites are on board the French Clemenceau-class warship, which was already considered to be susceptible to maintenance during its service in the Brazilian Navy. In addition to asbestos, we are talking about environmentally harmful paints, heavy metals in the on-board electronics and fuels and lubricants. The environmental organization Basel Action Network (BAN) based in Seattle, Washington, which is dedicated to fighting the export of toxic waste to developing countries, had warned of incalculable consequences.
“Regularly used type of ship disposal”
More than ten years ago, the German news magazine Der Spiegel described the practice of simply sinking ships as “symptomatic of a regularly used type of ship disposal”.
From 1996 to 2010, the US Army alone “did not scrap numerous retired ships in shipyards, but sunk them at sea”. This was practice in regular maneuvers called “Ship Sinking Exercises”. In 2005, the 320 meter long aircraft carrier “America” was “disposed of” in this way. The ship was the largest ever to be sunk in a controlled manner up to that point. The wreck lies off the east coast of the USA at a depth of over 5,000 meters. Number two by size in May 2006 was the USS Oriskany, an Essex-class aircraft carrier. She was sunk off the Florida coast south of Pensacola.
