The Horizon Fairbanks Leaves Bellingham Shipping Terminal

The ever familiar site of the ship Horizon Fairbanks, which has been docked on Bellingham’s waterfront for the past 10 years, left town today, headed for the scrapyard, Some will miss the familiar site, others will be glad to see it gone.

The ship has been a fixture on Bellingham’s since 2007.

Horizon’s owner Matson gave the port notice on April 11 the ship would be leaving within the month.

Matson was said to be paying the port about $1,000 a day to keep it docked here in Bellingham, that adds up to $365,000 per year or over $3,000.000 over the 10 years it has been here, the port will surely be looking for some way to replace that income.

My guess is the port will miss the income but it will stimulate them to find another source of revenue for the waterfront.

Matson is said to have sold the Horizon to All Star Metals, a ship recycling company in Texas, for scrap. I met someone once who wrote a fascinating book about a ship being recycled for scrap metal in India. looks like the Horizon’s demise will be in Texas. This is conjecture based on the fact the ship was sold to All Star Metals.

The 21,000 ton, 669-foot Horizon was a container ship, built in Mississippi in 1973. It was mostly used transporting containers to Alaska.