Cargo Hulks Essay

In the poem “The Cargo Hulks” by Peter Trower and the selection from “Breaking ships” by Roland Buerk, both pieces show how the ships being used as tools to make money for men and end up being abandoned when they are no longer useful as the improvement of ship industry. However, the Asian Tiger in “Breaking ships” is not forgotten by people like the cargo hulk, which is only getting rusty on the coast. Both ships are only tools in men’s minds. People create the cargo hulk and the Asian Tiger to help them make money but once they are not useful as before, the ships are just a piece of metal. People don't care about how many good works that they have done but only how much money that the ships can make for them. Now as the improvement of
ship industry, these old ships are being eliminated. However, people still become rich by buying the ships like Asian Tiger and selling the scrap steel. As a big oil tanker, Asian Tiger seems not forgotten by people like the cargo hulk as people are spending money to break Asian Tiger down. Asian Tiger is still being cared by people compare with the cargo hulk.
Even though Asian Tiger is just a big metal shell now, people still remember it and make the profit out of it. Compare with the cargo hulk, which is only sitting on the coast and “cracking in the sun,” Asian Tiger is being recycled by people. However, both the cargo hulk and Asian Tiger cannot escape the result of retirement. Asian Tiger and the cargo hulk’s endings are pitiful. They both have the glorious past about how big and strong they used to be in the ocean. The ships had conquered many adventures and helped people achieve their purposes. Now they are being abandoned because people create the other ships to replace them. “The cold reality of rain” washes the cargo hulk and Asian Tiger throughly into pieces of metal that can only be recycled. The brilliant past that the ships have further contrast with the poor endings that both ships have, emphasizing the mournful results that both ships get. Asian Tiger in “Breaking ships” and the cargo ship in “The Cargo Hulks” have the glorious past in the ocean while helping people to make money. However, Asian Tiger is recycled by people while the cargo hulk is just sitting on the coast and waiting for discovery. The ships are created by people but also abandoned by people since they are now useless, showing human’s indifference attitude toward the “tools” that they used to rely
on.