Inland Sea News

A crew member of a Japanese cargo ship was feared dead on Sunday after he was recovered near a vessel that had capsized and sunk following a collision in domestic waters, local media reported.Japanese coast guard ships and aircraft have been searching since Friday for three missing crew members of the cargo ship after the collision with a Marshall Islands-registered tanker in the Seto Inland Sea.Public broadcaster NHK said the coast guard found the crew member in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest on Sunday morning near the sunk vessel.The Japanese coast guard was not immediately reachable by phone on Sunday.Japan's Transport Safety Board is conducting an investigation on board the chemical tanker…

Japanese coast guard ships and aircraft were searching on Friday for three missing crew of a cargo ship that capsized and sank after a collision with a Marshall Islands-registered tanker in the Seto Inland Sea, authorities said.The Byakko sank at about 2:40 a.m.

In May 2017, MOL decided to build an LNG-fueled tugboat that would be operated by Nihon Tug-Boat Co., Ltd. It was built by Kanagawa Dockyard Co., Ltd., has dual-fueled engines from Yanmar Co., Ltd., and runs on LNG supplied by Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. The LNG-fueled tugboat, called Ishin, was delivered in February of 2019, and was featured in the December 2019 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News as a Great Ships of 2019.Ishin is Japan’s first tugboat built to conform to the International Code of Safety for Ships Using Gases or Other Low-flashpoint Fuels (IGF Code).

Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and its subsidiary Ferry Sunflower Limited have unveiled plans to construct Japan’s first two LNG-fueled ferries.Mitsubishi Shipbuilding will receive the order for the newbuild ferries that are designated to serve the Japanese market.Ferry Sunflower will charter the ferries after delivery and launch them on its Osaka-Beppu route from the end of 2022 through the first half of 2023, as replacements for vessels currently in service.The ferries will be equipped with high-performance dual fuel engines  and will provide passengers with comfortable accommodations and reliable schedules. What's more…

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a Group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) based in Yokohama, held a christening and launch ceremony on August 2 for a ferry currently under construction for Hankyu Ferry Co., Ltd., which is based in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka. The new vessel, named "Settsu," will replace the superannuated "Yamato," one of four large ferries operated by the company. After completion of rigging work, the "Settsu" will be handed over in February 2020 to…

Indonesian teams searching a lake for a sunken ferry in the hope of recovering nearly 200 bodies trapped inside have to contend with dangerous currents and cold, murky water far deeper than any scuba diver can ever go.The over-loaded ferry Sinar Bangun sank in bad weather in Lake Toba on Sumatra island on Monday. The lake, in the crater of an ancient supervolcano, is ringed by steeply sloping mountains, and is about 450 meters (1,500 feet) deep.Three people have been confirmed…

National Maritime Shipping Company Kazmortransflot LLP has taken delivery of its third Damen Shoalbuster 2709, the last in the current order.The vessels are ideal for operations in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea and are now playing a role in the development of oil fields in the Kazakh section of the inland sea and significantly expanding the range of services that Kazmortransflot can offer its clients. The contracts for the three Shoalbusters 2709 were signed in July 2017 between Damen, NMSC Kazmortransflot LLP and Al Hilal Islamic Bank, which arranged the Sharia compliant financing.

An algorithm has been developed to schedule transit vessel traffic in two-way waterways where safe distances between transiting vessels must be maintained and passage restrictions may hold. It limits the negative effects of the safety constrains on cargo volume throughput by finding schedules which increase the utilization of these waterways. The potential of this algorithm has been demonstrated on a plausible model of the Strait of Istanbul, and also the Suez Canal has been identified as a waterway where the algorithm could increase the volume of goods transported.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has announced the company's decision to build an LNG-fueled tugboat. The new tugboat, the first LNG-fueled tug in Japan, will conform to the IGF code issued in January of this year and is subject to be examined by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. MOL will own the tugboat, slated for construction at Kanagawa Dockyard. Yanmar Co will supply LNG-fueled engines. Osaka Gas will supply LNG fuel to the tugboat. Nihon Tug-Boat will operate the tugboat. The new tugboat will be deployed in Osaka Bay in April 2019. It will be equipped with high-performance dual fuel engines that allows high-speed operation and superior environmental performance…

The fleet of diesel-electric Terex Gottwald mobile harbour cranes in Japan continues to grow. In spring 2017, Terex Port Solutions (TPS) will supply a Model 2 crane to the Port of Otake in the south of the country. There, the machine in the G HMK 2204 two-rope variant ordered via Chikuho Seisakusho Co., Ltd. (CS) will handle mainly containers and general cargo. For this purpose, the new crane has a lifting capacity curve adapted to Japanese requirements with a maximum lifting capacity of 62 t, an outreach of up to 40 m and a maximum lifting speed of 85 m/min. The machine is also equipped with a second, specially developed load display in order to meet the relevant requirements for the safe load indicator in the Japanese market.

Interferry has unveiled a strategic plan promising to put safety issues at the heart of its work as the voice of the worldwide ferry industry. The pledge came at the global trade association’s 41st annual conference in Manila – a venue chosen to spotlight the challenges of domestic ferry safety in developing nations. According to Interferry, the plan signals its overriding ambition to help lift ferry safety in all parts of the world to the very high standard already in place in North America and Europe, where casualties in recent decades have been extremely rare.

1822 - The schooner Porpoise captures six pirate vessels off Cuba and destroys their base, while USS Spark recaptures a Dutch sloop that had been taken as a prize by pirates. A landing party destroys the pirate's base in the West Indies. 1881 - Nathan Goff Jr., took office as the 28th Secretary of the Navy, serving until March. A World War II destroyer was named for him. 1945 - Destroyers Charles Ausburne (DD 570), Braine (DD 630), Russell (DD 414) and Shaw (DD 373) sink the Japanese destroyer Hinoki, 50 miles west-southwest of Manila Bay.

During the second half of the 20th century, the Japanese ruled commercial shipbuilding. Today, numerous competitive forces in the Far East, led by South Korea and China, have continued to throw massive resources into building and maintaining modern shipbuilding dominance, so much so that it may seem as though the days of Japanese shipbuilding have passed for good. “Any single shipbuilder in Japan cannot fulfill a large-scale order, for example, for 10 ships,” an industry official told the Japan Times last September. Imabari Shipbuilding disagrees.

Under cooperation with Japan's Coast Guard, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has conducted a tabletop drill based on a scenario in which fire occurred in the engine room on a bulk carrier while under way at Kudako channel in Inland Sea, resulting in the vessel going aground. The vessel is managed by an overseas third-party ship management company. The drill was held on Thursday, May 22, with the goal of strengthening MOL's emergency response structure, which is based on the MOL Group Corporate Principles—protecting the environment by maintaining strict, safe operation and navigation standards. The exercise was also designed to ensure the necessary response and smooth…

Scenario: Fire in bulkship engine room, vessel runs aground. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. announced that, under cooperation of the 6th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters of Japan Coast Guard, the company conducted a tabletop drill based on a scenario in which fire occurred in the engine room on a bulk carrier while under way at Kudako channel in Inland Sea, resulting in the vessel going aground. The vessel is managed by an overseas third-party ship management company. The drill was held on Thursday, May 22, with the goal of strengthening MOL's emergency response structure, which is based on the MOL Group Corporate Principles—protecting the environment by maintaining strict, safe operation and navigation standards.

The Philippines is ideally positioned in the Asia-Pacific region to repair ocean-going & fishing vessels according to a Japanese study. The report was contained in a study on the ship building and ship repair industry of the Philippines conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Nomura Research Institute as part of the ongoing formulation of industry roadmaps by the [Philippine] Department of Trade and Industry reports the Manila Bulletin. Based on the study, the Philippines has the right ingredients to become a ship repair hub with strengths that include an inland sea, bay and deep seashore, abundant labor and legalized fiscal incentives.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL, President: Koichi Muto) today announced the completion of a table top drill based on the scenario of the MOL-owned and operated bulk carrier Mona Linden being involved in a collision that resulted in flooding and oil spill off Takamatsu, Inland sea, Japan. The drill involved about 60 participants including executives from MOL and MOL Group companies. The three-hour drill, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 19, was aimed at strengthening MOL's…

Two students from Maine Maritime Academy’s Corning School of Ocean Studies will travel to Japan this spring to take part in a conference on the ocean environment. Heather Blankenstein, a junior from Merrimack, N.H., and Robert Watts, a junior from Boothbay Harbor, Maine, will represent MMA at the April 5-30 International Marine Environment Symposium in Kobe, Japan. They will attend lectures, participate in discussion groups, and engage in field study aboard the training ship Fukae Maru, which operates in the Seto Inland Sea. Blankenstein and Watts were selected by Prof. Barry Kilch and other members of the Maine Maritime Academy’s ocean studies department. Alternates are Renee Dunton, a senior from Hampden, Maine; and Carl Rhodes, a junior from Bayfield, Colo.

San Francisco Bay, with its huge area and several ports, could more rightly be called an inland sea. Small harbors like Vallejo, major container ports like Oakland and several great bridges combine to create an immense demand for marine construction and repair. Moving a lot of that construction equipment around the Bay is an important part of the work of Port of San Francisco-based Westar Marine Services. In business since 1976, Westar has a fleet of six barges, four water taxis and nine tugs up to 3,000 hp. As a part of their fleet maintenance program the company recently purchased a pair of Cummins N14-M marine engines rated at 440 hp to repower their 56 x 14.5-ft. tug Wildcat. They had added five ft. to the boat's stern and a pair of kort nozzles with new 48-in.

Fireworks exploded over the Bay Bridge and thousands of people crowding the waterfront near the new ballpark gasped in admiration. Some of the best seats for the spectacle are along the north side of Pier 50, home of Westar Marine Services where owner's and employees share a barbecue in honor of the annual display sponsored by a local radio station. But the folks at Westar are more than passive observers, the tugs that are managing the fireworks barges are contracted from Westar. This annual fireworks event sums up Westar Marine Services' role on San Francisco Bay. They are the company that takes on all of the niche jobs that others with their large investments in big horsepower and Z-drives can't afford to be doing.