Act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull
This article is about scuttling ships. For the 19th-century British youth gangs, see
scuttlers
.
A ship is
scuttled
when its crew deliberately sinks it, typically by opening holes in its hull.
[1]
Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of
self-destruction
to prevent the ship from being captured by an enemy force; as a
blockship
to restrict navigation through a
channel
or within a
harbor
; to provide an
artificial reef
for divers and marine life; or to alter the flow of rivers.
Notable historical examples
[
edit
]
Skuldelev ships (around 1070)
[
edit
]
The
Skuldelev ships
, five
Viking ships
, were sunk to prevent attacks from the sea on the Danish city of
Roskilde
. The scuttling blocked a major waterway, redirecting ships to a smaller one that required considerable local knowledge.
[2]
Cog near Kampen (early 15th century)
[
edit
]
In 2012, a
cog
preserved from the keel up to the decks in the silt was discovered alongside two smaller vessels in the river
IJssel
in the city of
Kampen
, in the
Netherlands
.
[3]
The ship, dating from the early 15th century, was suspected to have been deliberately sunk into the river to influence its current.
[4]
[5]
Hernan Cortes (1519)
[
edit
]
The
Spanish
conquistador
Hernan Cortes
, who led the first expedition that resulted in the fall of the
Aztec Empire
, ordered his men to strip and scuttle his fleet to prevent the secretly planned return to
Cuba
by those loyal to Cuban Governor
Diego Velazquez de Cuellar
. Their success would have halted his inland march and
conquest of the Aztec Empire
.
HMS
Sapphire
(1696)
[
edit
]
HMS
Sapphire
was a 32-gun,
fifth-rate
sailing
frigate
of the Royal Navy in
Newfoundland Colony
to protect the English migratory fishery. The vessel was trapped in
Bay Bulls
harbour by four French naval vessels led by Jacques-Francois de Brouillan. To avoid its capture, the English scuttled the vessel on 11 September 1696.
HMS
Endeavour
(1778)
[
edit
]
HMS
Endeavour
was Captain
James Cook
's ship upon which he travelled to
Australia
. After being sold into private hands, she was finally scuttled in a blockade of
Narragansett Bay
, Rhode Island in 1778.
Siege of Yorktown (1781)
[
edit
]
The British sank one ship on 10 October 1781 to prevent it from being captured by the French fleet. Furthermore, the York River, while protected by the French Navy, also contained a few scuttled ships, which were meant to serve as a blockade should any British ships enter the river.
HMS
Bounty
(1790)
[
edit
]
HMS
Bounty
, after her crew mutinied, was scuttled by the mutineers in Bounty Bay off
Pitcairn Island
on 23 January 1790.
Chesapeake Bay Flotilla (1814)
[
edit
]
During the
War of 1812
, Commodore
Joshua Barney
, of the U.S. Navy,
Chesapeake Bay Flotilla
, sank all nineteen of his fighting vessels, to prevent them from being captured by the British, as he and his men marched, inland, in the
unsuccessful defense of Washington D.C.
Jan van Speijk (1831)
[
edit
]
During the
Belgian war of independence
, Dutch gunboat commander
Jan van Speijk
came under attack from a mob of Antwerp labourers. When they forced him and his crew to surrender, he ignited a barrel of gunpowder, thereby sinking his ship and killing himself and most of the crew. Van Speijk went on to become a national hero in the Netherlands.
Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol (1854)
[
edit
]
During the
Crimean War
, in anticipation of the
siege of Sevastopol
, the Russians scuttled ships of the
Black Sea Fleet
to protect the harbour, to use their naval cannon as additional artillery, and to free up the ships' crews as marines. Those ships that were deliberately sunk included
Grand Duke Constantine
,
City of Paris
(both with
120 guns
),
Brave
,
Empress Maria
, and
Chesme.
The Clotilda
[
edit
]
The
Clotilda (slave ship)
(often misspelled Clotilde) was the last known U.S.
slave ship
to bring captives from Africa to the United States, arriving at
Mobile Bay
, in autumn 1859 or on July 9, 1860, with 110 African men, women, and children. The ship was a two-masted
schooner
, 86 feet (26 m) long with a beam of 23 ft (7.0 m).
U.S. involvement in the
Atlantic slave trade
had been banned by Congress through the
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves
enacted on March 2, 1807 (effective January 1, 1808), but the practice continued illegally, especially through slave traders based in New York in the 1850s and early 1860. In the case of the Clotilda, the voyage's sponsors were based in the South and planned to buy Africans in
Kingdom of Whydah
,
Dahomey
. After the voyage, the ship was burned and scuttled in Mobile Bay in an attempt to destroy the evidence.
USS
Merrimack
/CSS
Virginia
(1861)
[
edit
]
In April 1861, the
United States Navy
steam
frigate
USS
Merrimack
was among several ships
Union
forces set afire or scuttled at the Gosport Navy Yard (now
Norfolk Naval Shipyard
) in
Portsmouth
,
Virginia
, to keep them from falling into
Confederate
hands at the outbreak of the
American Civil War
. The unsuccessful attempt at scuttling
Merrimack
enabled the
Confederate States Navy
to raise and rebuild her as the
broadside ironclad
CSS
Virginia
. Shortly after her famous engagement with the U.S Navy
monitor
USS
Monitor
in the
Battle of Hampton Roads
in March 1862, the Confederates scuttled
Virginia
to keep her from being captured by Union forces.
Stone Fleet (1861?1862)
[
edit
]
In December 1861 and January 1862,
Union
forces scuttled a number of former
whalers
and other
merchant ships
in an attempt to block access to Confederate ports during the
American Civil War
. Loaded with stone before being scuttled, the scuttled ships were known as the "
Stone Fleet
." Those scuttled in December 1861 sometimes are called the "First Stone Fleet," while those sunk in January 1862 sometimes are termed the "Second Stone Fleet."
Peruvian fleet at El Callao (1881)
[
edit
]
During the
War of the Pacific
, as Chilean troops entered
Lima
and
El Callao
, the Peruvian naval officer
German Astete
ordered the whole Peruvian fleet to be scuttled to prevent capture by Chile.
USS
Merrimac
(1898)
[
edit
]
During the
Spanish?American War
, a volunteer crew of
United States Navy
personnel attempted to scuttle the
collier
USS
Merrimac
in the entrance to the harbor at
Santiago de Cuba
in
Cuba
on the night of 2?3 June 1898 in an attempt to trap the
Spanish Navy
squadron
of
Vice Admiral
Manuel de la Camara y Libermoore
in port there. The attempt failed when she came under fire by Spanish ships and fortifications and sank without blocking the entrance.
Port Arthur (1904?1905)
[
edit
]
In 1904, during the
Russo-Japanese War
, the
Imperial Japanese Navy
made three attempts to block the entrance to the
Imperial Russian Navy
base at
Port Arthur
,
Manchuria
,
China
, by scuttling
transports
. Although the Japanese scuttled five transports on 23 February, four on 27 March, and eight on 3 May, none of the attacks succeeded in blocking the entrance.
[6]
The Russians also scuttled four
steamers
at the entrance in March 1904 in an attempt to defend the harbor from Japanese intrusion.
[7]
During the
siege of Port Arthur
, the Russians scuttled the surviving ships of their
Pacific Squadron
that were trapped in port at Port Arthur in late 1904 and early January 1905 to prevent their capture intact by the Japanese.
SMS
Dresden
(1915)
[
edit
]
In December 1914,
SMS
Dresden
was the only German warship to escape destruction in the
Battle of the Falkland Islands
. She eluded her British pursuers for several more months, until she put into
Mas a Tierra
in March 1915. Her engines were worn out and she had almost no coal left for her boilers. There, she was trapped by British cruisers, which violated Chilean neutrality and opened fire on the ship.
Dresden
'
s Executive Officer ? the future Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris
? negotiated with the British and bought time for his crew to scuttle the
Dresden
.
Zeebrugge Raid (1918)
[
edit
]
The
Zeebrugge Raid
involved three outdated British cruisers chosen to serve as
blockships
in the German-held Belgian
port of Bruges-Zeebrugge
from which German
U-boat
operations threatened British shipping.
Thetis
,
Intrepid
and
Iphigenia
were filled with concrete then sent to block a critical canal. Heavy defensive fire caused the
Thetis
to scuttle prematurely; the other two cruisers sank themselves successfully in the narrowest part of the canal. Within three days, however, the Germans had broken through the western bank of the canal to create a shallow detour for their submarines to move past the blockships at high tide.
German fleet at Scapa Flow (1919)
[
edit
]
In 1919, over 50 warships of the
German High Seas Fleet
were scuttled by their crews at
Scapa Flow
in the north of
Scotland
, following the deliverance of the fleet as part of the terms of the German surrender. Rear Admiral
Ludwig von Reuter
ordered the sinkings, denying the majority of the ships to the
Allies
. Von Reuter was made a prisoner-of-war in Britain but his act of defiance was celebrated in Germany. Though most of the fleet was subsequently salvaged by engineer
Ernest Cox
, a number of warships (including three battleships) remain, making the area very popular amongst undersea diving enthusiasts.
Washington Naval Treaty (1922)
[
edit
]
HMAS
Australia
sinking in the
Tasman Sea
on 12 April 1924
Under the terms of the
Washington Naval Treaty
of 1922, the great naval powers were required to limit the size of their battlefleets, resulting in the disposal of some older or incomplete
capital ships
. During 1924 and 1925, the treaty resulted in the scuttling of the
Royal Australian Navy
battlecruiser
HMAS
Australia
and the incomplete
Imperial Japanese Navy
battleship
Tosa
, while four old Japanese battleships, the
Royal Navy
battleship
HMS
Monarch
, and the incomplete
United States Navy
battleship
USS
Washington
(BB-47)
all were disposed of as
targets
.
Admiral Graf Spee
(1939)
[
edit
]
Following the
Battle of the River Plate
the damaged German
pocket battleship
Admiral Graf Spee
sought refuge in the port of
Montevideo
. On 17 December 1939, with the
British
and
Commonwealth
cruisers
HMS
Ajax
,
HMS
Cumberland
, and
HMNZS
Achilles
waiting in international waters outside the mouth of the
Rio de la Plata
, Captain
Hans Langsdorff
sailed
Graf Spee
just outside the harbour and scuttled the vessel to avoid risking the lives of his crew in what he expected would be a losing battle. Langsdorff shot himself three days later.
San Giorgio
at Tobruk (1941)
[
edit
]
When British and Commonwealth land forces attacked
Tobruk
on 21 January 1941, the Italian cruiser
San Giorgio
turned its guns against the attacking force, repelling an attack by tanks. As British forces were entering Tobruk,
San Giorgio
was scuttled at 4:15 AM on 22 January.
San Giorgio
was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor for her actions in the defence of Tobruk. The ship was salvaged in 1952, but while being towed to Italy, her tow rope failed and she sank in heavy seas.
Blockade of Massawa (1941)
[
edit
]
As the Allies advanced toward
Eritrea
during their
East African Campaign
in
World War II
,
Mario Bonetti
?the Italian commander of the
Red Sea Flotilla
based at
Massawa
?realized that the British would overrun his harbor. In the first week of April 1941, he began to destroy the harbor's facilities and ruin its usefulness to the Allies. Bonetti ordered the sinking of two large
floating dry docks
and supervised the calculated scuttling of eighteen large commercial ships in the mouths of the north Naval Harbor, the central Commercial Harbor and the main South Harbor. This blocked navigation in and out. He also had a large floating crane scuttled. These actions rendered the harbor useless by 8 April 1941, when Bonetti surrendered it to the British. Scuttled ships included the German steamers
Liebenfels
,
Frauenfels
,
Lichtenfels
,
Crefeld
,
Gera
and
Oliva
. Also scuttled were the Italian steamers
Adua
,
Brenta
,
Arabia
,
Romolo Gessi
,
Vesuvio
,
XXIII Marzo
,
Antonia C.
,
Riva Ligure
,
Clelia Campenella
,
Prometeo
and the Italian tanker
Giove
. The largest scuttled vessel was the 11,760-ton
Colombo
, an Italian steamer. Thirteen coastal steamers and small naval vessels were also scuttled.
[8]
[9]
[10]
The British seized the harbor and initiated
marine salvage
operations under Commander
Joseph Stenhouse
to restore navigation in and out. Stenhouse was slowed by
heat exhaustion
but his team refloated the oil tanker
Giove
; he died in September 1941 when the salvage tug
Tai Koo
bearing him as a passenger was sunk by a naval mine in the Red Sea.
[11]
His death left a civilian contractor to open a channel, but this crew made no progress. It was not until a year later that headway was made in the effort to return Massawa to military duties. U.S. Navy Commander
Edward Ellsberg
arrived in April 1942 with a salvage crew and a small collection of specialized tools and began methodically correcting the damage. His salvage efforts yielded significant results in just 5½ weeks. American divers sealed the hulls underwater, and air was pumped in to float the hulls. The divers defused a
booby trap
in
Brenta
, which contained an armed
naval mine
sitting on three torpedo warheads in the
hold
. Another danger was
Regia Marina
minelayer
Ostia
, which had been sunk by the
Royal Air Force
with several of its mines still racked. On 8 May 1942, SS
Koritza
, an armed Greek steamer, had drydocked for cleaning and minor hull repairs. Massawa's first major surface fleet "customer" was
HMS
Dido
, which needed repairs to a heavily damaged stern in mid-August 1942, the beginning of a repair and maintenance period for the war-weary
15th Cruiser Squadron
.
[12]
Many of the harbor's sunken ships were patched by Ellsberg's divers, refloated, repaired and taken into service.
[13]
Ostia
and
Brenta
were successfully salvaged, despite their armed mines. All of this occurred while the British civil contractor struggled and failed to refloat one ship.
[9]
Bismarck
(1941)
[
edit
]
In 1941, the battleship
Bismarck
, heavily damaged by the Royal Navy, leaking fuel,
listing
, unable to steer and with no effective weapons, but still afloat and with engines running, was scuttled by its crew to avoid capture. This was supported by survivors' reports in
Pursuit: the Sinking of the Bismarck
, by
Ludovic Kennedy
, 1974 and by a later examination of the wreck itself by Dr.
Robert Ballard
in 1989. A later, more advanced examination found torpedoes had penetrated the second deck, normally always above water and only possible on an already sinking ship, thus further supporting that scuttling had made the final torpedoing redundant.
[14]
Coral Sea and Midway (1942)
[
edit
]
After the Battles of the
Coral Sea
and
Midway
, the heavily damaged American
aircraft carrier
Lexington
and the Japanese carriers
Hiry?
,
S?ry?
,
Akagi
, and
Kaga
were all scuttled to prevent their preservation and use by their respective enemies.
French fleet at Toulon (1942)
[
edit
]
In November 1942, in an operation codenamed
Case Anton
, Nazi German forces occupied the so-called "
Free Zone
" in response to the Allied landing in North Africa. On 27 November they reached
Toulon
, where the majority of the
French Navy
was anchored. To avoid capture by the Nazis (Operation Lila), the French admirals-in-command (
Laborde
and
Marquis
) decided to
scuttle the 230,000 tonne fleet
, most notably, the battleships
Dunkerque
and
Strasbourg
. Eighty percent of the fleet was utterly destroyed, all of the
capital ships
proving impossible to repair. Legally, the scuttling of the fleet was allowed under the terms of the
1940 Armistice with Germany
.
Danish fleet (1943)
[
edit
]
Anticipating a German seizure of all units of the Danish Navy as part of
Operation Safari
, mostly in Copenhagen but also at other harbours and at sea in Danish waters, the Danish Admiralty had instructed its captains to resist, short of outright fighting, any German attempts to assume control over their vessels, by scuttling if escape to Sweden was not possible and suitable preparations were made. Of the fifty-two vessels
[15]
in the Danish Navy on 29 August, two were in Greenland, thirty-two were scuttled, four reached Sweden and fourteen were taken undamaged by the Germans. Nine Danish sailors lost their lives and ten were wounded. Subsequently, major parts of the Naval personnel were interned for a period.
Allied landing in Normandy (1944)
[
edit
]
Old ships code-named "Corn cobs" were sunk to form a protective reef for the
Mulberry harbours
at
Arromanches
and
Omaha Beach
for the
Normandy landings
. The sheltered waters created by these scuttled ships were called "Gooseberries" and protected the harbours so transport ships could unload without being hampered by waves.
Operation Deadlight (1945?1946)
[
edit
]
Of the 156 German
submarines
("
U-boats
") surrendered to the
Allies
at the end of
World War II
, 116 were scuttled by the
Royal Navy
in
Operation Deadlight
. Plans called for them to be scuttled in three areas in the
North Atlantic Ocean
west of
Ireland
, but 56 of the submarines sank before reaching the designated areas due to their poor material condition. Most of the submarines were sunk by gunfire rather than with explosive charges. The first sinking took place on 17 November 1945 and the last on 11 February 1946.
[16]
[17]
Japanese submarines (1946)
[
edit
]
To prevent a
Soviet
inspection team from examining surrendered
Imperial Japanese Navy
submarines after World War II, the United States Navy conducted
Operation Road's End
, in which it scuttled 24 of the submarines in the
East China Sea
off
Fukue Island
on 1 April 1946. Nine more Japanese submarines followed on 5 April, and another six went down by early May. In addition, U.S. Navy submarines sank four surrendered Japanese submarines as targets in the
Pacific Ocean
near
Hawaii
in May and June 1946, and the
Royal Australian Navy
sank six or seven (sources differ) surrendered Japanese submarines in the
Seto Inland Sea
on 8 May 1946 in
Operation Bottom
.
Contemporary era
[
edit
]
Today, ships (and other objects of similar size) are sometimes sunk to help form
artificial reefs
, as was done with the former
USS
Oriskany
in 2006. It is also common for
military
organizations to use old ships as
targets
, in
war games
, or for various other experiments. As an example, the decommissioned
aircraft carrier
USS
America
was subjected to surface and underwater explosions in 2005 as part of classified research to help design the next generation of carriers (the
Gerald R. Ford
class
), before being sunk with demolition charges.
Ships are increasingly being scuttled as a method of disposal. The economic benefit of scuttling a ship includes removal of ongoing operational expense to keep the vessel seaworthy. Controversy surrounds the practice. Notable actions against the practice include the
USS
Oriskany
, which was scuttled with 700 pounds of
PCBs
remaining on board as a component in cable insulation,
[18]
contravening the
Stockholm Convention
on safe disposal of
persistent organic pollutants
, which has zero tolerance for PCB dumping in marine environments. The planned scuttling of the Australian frigate
HMAS
Adelaide
at
Avoca Beach, New South Wales
in March 2010 was placed on hold after
resident action groups
aired concerns about possible impact on the area's tides and that the removal of dangerous substances from the ship was not thorough enough.
[19]
Further cleanup work on the hulk was ordered, and despite further attempts to delay,
Adelaide
was scuttled on 13 April 2011.
[20]
[21]
Scuttled ships have been used as conveyance for dangerous materials. In the late 1960s, the
United States Army
scuttled SS
Corporal Eric G. Gibson
and SS
Mormactern
with
VX nerve gas
rockets aboard as part of
Operation CHASE
? "CHASE" being Pentagon shorthand for "Cut Holes and Sink 'Em." Other ships have been "chased" containing
mustard agents
,
bombs
,
land mines
, and
radioactive waste
.
[22]
In Somalian waters,
pirate ships
captured are scuttled. Most nations have little interest in prosecuting the pirates, thus this is usually the only repercussion.
In March 2022, Ukraine was forced to scuttle the
Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaidachny
, a Krivak-class frigate, due to encroaching Russian offensive operations that threatened to capture the frigate.
[23]
In February 2023, the
Brazilian Navy
scuttled the
decommissioned
aircraft carrier
Sao Paulo
into the
Atlantic Ocean
, following the rejections of
injunctions
from the
Ministry of the Environment
and the
Federal Public Ministry
.
[24]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
The term "scuttling" is also used in
science fiction
to describe intentionally destroying a
spacecraft
. For example, in
The Expanse
, this is done by intentionally overloading the ship's
reactor
.
[25]
In the 13th episode of
Bob’s Burgers 12th season
, Teddy and the family attend a scuttling ceremony for the USS
Gertrude Stein
, the ship Teddy worked on during his Navy service.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Definition of SCUTTLE"
.
Merriam-Webster
. 12 April 2023
. Retrieved
11 June
2023
.
- ^
"Viking dig reports ? Roskilde"
.
Ancient history in-depth
. BBC. 2014.
- ^
"Excavation, recovery and conservation of a 15th century Cog from the river IJssel near Kampen"
.
Ruimte voor de Rivier IJsseldelta
.
Rijkswaterstaat
. September 2015. Archived from
the original
on 6 July 2017
. Retrieved
14 September
2017
.
- ^
Ghose, Tia (17 February 2016).
"Medieval Shipwreck Hauled from the Deep"
.
Live Science
. Retrieved
14 September
2017
.
- ^
"Late Medieval Cog from Kampen"
.
Medieval Histories
. 21 February 2016
. Retrieved
14 September
2017
.
- ^
Anonymous (1904).
"The Russo-Japanese War"
. Kinkodo Publishing. pp. 83?86. 91?93, 251?256.
- ^
Anonymous (15 March 1905).
"Harbor Blocked"
(PDF)
.
The Evening Bulletin
. Maysville, Kentucky. p. 1.
- ^
Playfair, Ian Stanley Ord
(1954).
The Mediterranean and Middle East: The early successes against Italy (to May 1941)
. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 442.
- ^
a
b
Ellsberg, Edward
(1946).
Under the Red Sea Sun
. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co.
- ^
"Salvage in Massawa".
Shipbuilding and Shipping Record
. Vol. 73. Westminster, London. 16 June 1949. p. 705.
- ^
Haddelsey, Stephen (2008).
Ice Captain: : The life of J.R. Stenhouse
. History Press. pp. 207?210.
ISBN
9780750943482
.
- ^
O'Hara, Vincent (2009).
Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940-1945
. Naval Institute Press. p. 163.
ISBN
9781612514086
.
- ^
Toyin Falola; R. Joseph Parrott; Danielle Porter Sanchez, eds. (2019).
African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalization
. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 188?189.
ISBN
9781580469548
.
- ^
Battle of Hood and Bismarck
. PBS. 2002.
- ^
Nørby, Søren.
"Operation Safari - August 29th 1943"
.
Danish Military History
. Archived from
the original
on 13 January 2014.
- ^
Paterson, Lawrence (2009).
Black Flag: The Surrender of Germany's U-Boat Forces 1945
. Pen & Sword books. pp. 161?163.
ISBN
978-1-84832-037-6
.
- ^
Paterson (2009)
, p. 174.
- ^
Shallal, Suhair.
"PCBs Released from the ex-Oriskany Following Deployment as an Artificial Reef: Approach for Assessment of Human Health and Environmental Risks"
. Retrieved
15 March
2010
.
- ^
West, Andrew (30 March 2010).
"Judge fires broadside at rush to sink warship"
.
The Sydney Morning Herald
. Retrieved
3 April
2010
.
- ^
Harvey, Ellie; West, Andrew (16 September 2010).
"Judge orders tough new rules for scuttling"
.
The Sydney Morning Herald
. Retrieved
20 September
2010
.
- ^
McMahon, Jeanette (13 April 2011).
"Dolphins delay scuttling of HMAS Adelaide"
.
1223 ABC Newcastle
. Australian Broadcasting Corporation
. Retrieved
14 April
2011
.
- ^
Bull, John.
"Special Report, Part 1: The Deadliness Below"
.
The Daily Press
. Norfolk, Virginia
. Retrieved
18 June
2007
.
- ^
"Hetman Sahaidachny frigate, being under repair, flooded not to get to enemy ? Reznikov"
. Archived from
the original
on 8 June 2022.
- ^
"Brazil scuttles warship in Atlantic despite pollution concerns"
.
RFI
. 4 February 2023
. Retrieved
4 February
2023
.
- ^
Corey, James S. A. (September 2021).
Leviathan Wakes
.
ISBN
978-0-316-33342-9
.
OCLC
1259540286
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- George, S. C. (1981).
Jutland to Junkyard
. Edinburgh: Paul Harris Publishing.
ISBN
9780862280291
.
Life cycle of a Navy ship
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Service life
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After decommissioning
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