Mystery of Japanese tanker damage.

[CrankyBastard]

Mystery of Japanese tanker damage probed

An investigation has been launched into the unexplained damage suffered by a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman.
The M Star was damaged on Wednesday while travelling from Qatar to Japan.
Port officials in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates say the ship was involved in a collision. However, the boat's owners Mitsui OSK believe their vessel may have been attacked.
Early reports that the ship was struck by a freak wave have been dismissed.

The M Star is currently docked in Fujairah where local officials are inspecting the damage to its hull and its interior, with the help of the British and US navies.
The incident has stirred fears of a terrorist attack in the Strait, the route for 40% of the world's seaborne oil.

Taken from BBC website today.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10803239


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In my opinion, the damage as seen in the photo appears to have been caused more by vacuum than external collision. I don't know the age of the ship, but if it is a double hull, it would be fairly easy to pull a vaccuum in the double hull with a stripping pump, if the vents were shut off.
Again judging from the photo, it appears that the scantlings have failed between the main brackets. The Very loud noise when they gave would certainly sound like an explosion.
Could be something else of course but nothing I have seen.

[Greji]

In my opinion, the damage as seen in the photo appears to have been caused more by vacuum than external collision. I don't know the age of the ship, but if it is a double hull, it would be fairly easy to pull a vaccuum in the double hull with a stripping pump, if the vents were shut off.
Again judging from the photo, it appears that the scantlings have failed between the main brackets.

Cranky, being that you're the original "Ancyent Marinere," I bow to your infinite wisdom on such topics. I gotta admit it looks like it would have been hard to have hit something (or have been hit by something) while under sail that could leave that type of localized damage. It does look like other parts of the hull have been strained, or drawn in by a vaccuum. It would also seem very plausible that an explosion in the right quarters could result in an implosive of sorts, but whether it could cause this type of damage is an interesting question.

[IparryU]

Wow... really deep CB. Maybe you should ring up Mitsui OSK and explain that to them? If this was a terrorist attack, they wouldn't be alive or they wouldn't have their goods they were transporting.

Another J-cry for attention and help... help really needed though with that big ass dent on the side of their boat!

[Coligny]

Wow... really deep CB. Maybe you should ring up Mitsui OSK and explain that to them? If this was a terrorist attack, they wouldn't be alive or they wouldn't have their goods they were transporting.

Another J-cry for attention and help... help really needed though with that big ass dent on the side of their boat!

Exactly like the highway guardrail scare...

OMFG OMG OMG terrurist...

Nope... doofus that can't drive...

Also... explosiun tend to leave black splatters on the paintwork...

[CrankyBastard]

What makes me dubious about external forces causing that kind of damage is the corrugations are visible above the larger collapse, and the tank has collapsed between frames and below a horizontal girder.
But it's hard to form a concrete opinion from just one small picture on the internet.
Release of the innocent and search for the guilty begins ........
Blame a snipe!!!

[Kuang_Grade]

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100729/NATIONAL/707289843

Some more pictures, including interior damage from the galley on the upper deck, so it just wasn't that part of the hull dented in.

[Greji]

What makes me dubious about external forces causing that kind of damage is the corrugations are visible above the larger collapse, and the tank has collapsed between frames and below a horizontal girder.
But it's hard to form a concrete opinion from just one small picture on the internet.
Release of the innocent and search for the guilty begins ........
Blame a snipe!!!

Snipe's were having a circle jerk and all fired together?

[CrankyBastard]

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100729/NATIONAL/707289843

Some more pictures, including interior damage from the galley on the upper deck, so it just wasn't that part of the hull dented in.

Interesting pictures.
It is feasible severe stress on the superstructure could pop portholes and bulkhead doors.
But as I said earlier, I think it's too hard to determine from a few pictures.
I'm with Greji,....................'the snipes done it'

[CrankyBastard]

At present the Exxon tanker Alrehab is moored alongside M Star.
According to a crew member of Alherab, the bridge windows of M Star blew inward, injuring the second mate.

[Doctor Stop]

The Very loud noise when they gave would certainly sound like an explosion.

Could it have been an explosion on the poop deck on Mexican night? Don't underestimate the power of refried beans.

[Mike Oxlong]

Update...

Militant jihadists have claimed that a suicide bomber blew himself up on a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, the US monitoring group SITE said.

Mitsui OSK Lines had previously reported that one of its tankers, the M Star, appeared to have been hit by an explosion July 28 in the waterway between Iran and Oman.

SITE said the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam claimed in a message on jihadist websites that it had placed a suicide bomber on the tanker, identifying him as Ayyub al-Taishan.

It said the attack was carried out in the name of Omar Abdul Rahman, the Egyptian "Blind Sheikh" imprisoned in the United States for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York.

The attack sought "to weaken the infidel global order which is thrust unto Muslim lands and which loots its resources," the brigade said, according to SITE.

"We delayed the publication of the statement until our heroes returned safely to their bases."

Japan said Wednesday it was investigating the facts about the statement.

"We know that a criminal declaration was uploaded on an Internet site, but at this point, it's unclear whether it is true or not," the foreign ministry's press secretary Kazuo Kodama told reporters.

"The tanker is docked at a port in the United Arab Emirates. We will continue our investigation into the case," Kodama said without elaborating.

Mitsui OSK Lines' spokeswoman said: "We are investigating the facts about the case, but we don't have fresh information in Tokyo."

[Coligny]

Update...

Yeah... now every lunatic around will try to take the blame/credit...

[IparryU]

Yeah... now every lunatic around will try to take the blame/credit...

When I was doing police training in the US (Alameda County, Oakland, no BS) one of my teachers (Alameda County Homicide Detective) said that she would have so many people "admit" to crimes for the fame. Fact is, that if you pleaded guilty for any crime and you are suspected of doing it for fame, you cannot be convicted... but they will hold you in jail for fun.

I wonder how many people will "admit" to doing this just so they can get rep...

[Greji]

... but they will hold you in jail for fun.

That can be quite easy for an fg in Japan!

I wonder how many people will "admit" to doing this just so they can get rep...

You only need one tour in the "Butabako" over here to distinguish what is worth "rep" and what is not. Plus, if you admit to anything here, you will get the fame, and you're going away whether you could have actually done the deed, or not....

[Samurai_Jerk]

UAE: Japanese tanker attacked in Persian Gulf

The United Arab Emirates said Friday that a Japanese oil tanker was hit by an explosives-laden dinghy in the Persian Gulf in what would be the first attack in the strategic waterway where millions of barrels of oil are transported each day.

The report — which came days after an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for attacking the vessel — raised fears about the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for many petroleum exporting countries.

It was the latest in what has been a series of conflicting accounts of what happened to the M. Star supertanker, which was damaged as it entered the Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for about 40 percent of oil shipped by tankers worldwide.

Al-Qaida has carried out attacks on oil infrastructure on land in nearby Saudi Arabia, as well as a 2002 suicide bombing of the Limburg off the coast of Yemen and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

But if the UAE report is confirmed, the July 28 incident would be the first militant attack in the strait, a narrow chokepoint between Oman and Iran. ...

[Coligny]

Come on, this is a bomb damage:



Not even smoke/burn marks on the paint for this tanker...

[sublight]

Update:

Japan Times (via Kyodo): Tanker radar showed two small vessels before blast

Radar records indicate two small vessels were near a Chiba-bound supertanker when it was damaged in a suspected attack in the Strait of Hormuz in late July, transport ministry sources said Tuesday.

Data retrieved from the tanker's voyage data recorder shows two small vessels changing directions several times and making other suspicious moves, raising the possibility they may have been involved in the purported attack.

...

The UAE's state-run news agency, WAM, citing a national coast guard source, reported that local explosives experts "found a dent on the starboard side above the waterline and remains of homemade explosives on the hull."

"Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives," the source was quoted as saying in the report.

[Coligny]

Update:
"Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives," the source was quoted as saying in the report.
Japan Times (via Kyodo): Tanker radar showed two small vessels before blast

Yea... and also extremly bad at their job...