'Ghost Fleet' sails into political storm

By Jack Garland
The Associated Press

	STEVE EARLEY / THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT The World War II-era tanker Canisteo is part of the reserve fleet known as the "Ghost Fleet" due to arrive in England tomorrow.
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HARTLEPOOL, England — The first ship of an aging U.S. Navy flotilla neared port yesterday, where the rusting vessels face a legal and political tempest over whether they can be scrapped on British soil.

Protesters and the ship-breaking yard geared up to greet the 58-year-old Caloosahatchee, due today, with the equally aged tanker Canisteo a day behind. Many locals are concerned that the ships contain toxic asbestos and PCBs.

The two ships are to dock in this northern English town despite a court order barring a British company from fulfilling its contract to scrap them and 11 others from the U.S. "ghost fleet" in the James River in Virginia.

The British government last week said the Caloosahatchee and Canisteo would be given temporary shelter in Hartlepool for the winter, but they would have to go back to the United States eventually.

Two other ships, the 1965-vintage submarine tender Canopus and the cargo ship Compass Island (1953), would not be allowed to dock, British Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said. However, they were still being towed toward Britain.

Peter Stephenson, managing director of ABLE U.K. Ltd., which won the contract to scrap 13 ships from the fleet, confirmed yesterday that the vessels did contain asbestos but said the level of banned PCBs was not significant.

Graham Gove, a 45-year-old taxi driver, was unimpressed by claims that dismantling the ships in Hartlepool, part of a region already scarred by heavy industry, will create hundreds of jobs.

"People here are sick of all the rubbish being dumped here," he said. "What use are a few jobs if we are all going to be dead in a few years' time from the chemicals anyway?"

Stephenson said he was confident of resolving the dispute in the company's favor.

"We have got a number of legal advisers and at the moment everything we are hearing is fully supportive of our position," he said.

Neil Marley, a member of the local environmental group Impact, said there were plans for a bonfire and protest vigil by the yard today.

"We have to make our stand, and I think there will be plenty of people there," Marley said.

A U.S. judge has blocked nine other ships in the ABLE U.K. contract from leaving their moorings.

While four ships were headed to Britain, three others have gone to breakers' yards in the United States with no reports of disputes.

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