An oil tanker sank off the Japanese coast on Thursday
The captain of an oil tanker is missing after the vessel exploded and caught fire off the Japanese coast, sending columns of acrid smoke billowing into the sky.
The 80-metre Shoku Maru had unloaded its cargo of crude oil and was stationary close to the coast about 450km west of Tokyo, when the explosion happened.
A spokesman for the ship's owner, Syoho Shipping, said seven of the eight Japanese crew were accounted for but the fate of the captain was not known.
The nearly 1,000-tonne tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil last week and was stationary off the coast of Hyogo prefecture, around 450 kilometres (280 miles) west of Tokyo, when the explosion happened at about 9:20 am (0020 GMT).
Throughout the day the vessel listed ever more extremely, and sank beneath the waves in the early evening, the coastguard said.
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Something will have to be done to try and recover the fuel that has gone down with the tanker to try and prevent any environmental impact.
Thank goodness that she was empty of cargo (oil). Not sure what her bunker capacity is, but by the size of her, it could be upwards of 60,000 barrels.
As she exploded and burned before she sank and had no crude aboard, the impact of the actual sinking will likely be minimal.
What I'm still trying to figure out is, with all the petroleum vapors on that ship what the hell were they doing using a grinder? They had to know that a grinder was going to produce massive amounts of sparks as it hit metal.
Her bunker fuel would be in it's own tanks Spike, separate from the crude she was carrying. They would not be empty. Bunker fuel is the fuel that she runs on.
Yeah, but it exploded and burned for a bit prior to slipping under the waves-it was burning something......
That is the million dollar question Larry. An empty tanker is highly explosive, due to fuel vapors.
For sure it's an 80-meter long bomb just waiting to go off.
Could be reside of oil that was cargo, or a lot of things. Fire on board a vessel is the worst possible thing that can happen.
Tis the truth. We don't like 'em much on airplanes either.......
In the transportation industry uncontrolled fire is always a bad thing.
When logic fails, think insurance payouts. 'Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more...'
One, when something like this happens. The insurance company will employ marine specialist in this. It'stough one for themto get away with. It's been tried many times before.
I still have a feeling that there is a lot more to this than what is being reported.