The Shipyards of Chittagong Beach

CHITTAGONG, BANGLADESH - 2010/02/09: An evening sunset scene of a mega freighter that is out of service and has been left on Chittagong beach to be disassembled by poor laborers. Where do the mega freighters and super tankers of the world go when they are deemed to be taken out of service? Sadly, the answer to this question would be the muddy beaches of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Here, workers risk their lives on a daily basis when disassembling the discarded super tankers by hand bit by bit, metal sheet after metal sheet. The long stretch of coastline is literally covered with ships that are brought in from Singapore. This is the merchant fleets cemetery, where 86 000 ton oil tankers sit bow to bow with smaller vessels. They are all in various stages of decay and the smell of burnt metal and gas are heavy in the air. It takes somewhere between half a year and eight months to turn a giant of the sea into a heap of scrap. (Photo by Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket via Getty Images)