Japan calls off active search for missing cattle ship crew

And RIP to lost lives and cows

And RIP to lost lives and cows

Why Earth would someone downvote that? Strange, disconnected times we live in...

I think Japan Coast Guard did best they can. They saved two lives. Well done.

"China should consider importing slaughtered frozen beef,"

New Zealand exports dairy cows to China in order to build up that country's breeding stock; the 6000 cows were intended for MILKING not for eating.

"bringing with it winds of up to 290 kilometers per hour (180 miles per hour)."

wow, that's the speed of the shinkansen. I can't phantom being at sea under these conditions

For the 43 poor souls who have likely gone to a watery grave I say

Requiescant in Pace.

The Japan Coastguard did all it could.

What was the port of departure of the vessel and where was it going with 6000 head of cattle? A good question is why a heavily laden ship would put out to sea with two typhoons with predicted paths barrelling towards their Sea route?

And that is the multi-million dollar question.

The insurers for the vessel and I suspect relevant authorities will be taking a keen interest. It was flying a Flag of Convenience out of Panama and registered to a shipping company out of Dubai. The investigation may not be that thorough. . . . .

Dukeleto, the details were in a previous series of articles, but finally left out this time. This ship left New Zealand long before typhoons 9 and 10 were born, and was due to dock in China. The captain tried to outrun the typhoon, which was on a converging track, and he might have succeeded, but one of the engines on this old ship failed at the most critical time.

Possibly the captain thought to run behind the eye of Typhoon No.9 as it moved north. They encountered 15 meter waves, though. I have seen photos of water pouring through the ceiling of a room full of electrical boxes. The crew has taped plastic sheeting over the boxes in an attempt to prevent water ingress. This ship was originally built to carry containers, with the sides very low to the water. It was subsequently changed to carry stacks of livestock cages, surely altering its center of gravity. The name of the ship has also been changed five times during its life.

Port of departure: Napier, New Zealand August 14 00:25

Port of arrival: Jintang, China September 3 01:00

Looking at the calendar dates, it is possible to reconstruct the navigational orders issued by ship's master Dante Addug. He expected to be in port within 24 hours, and knowing that any delay would cut into profits he decided to go for broke. (After all, six thousand cows eat a lot of cow food every twenty-four hours.) The photographs of seawater cascading onto electrical junction boxes can be seen at Daily Mail--new video 22 hours ago shows deck awash with seawater. 440 Volts busbar does not like seawater, and the engine almost certainly stopped due to electrical short circuit. The distress call was issued on Tuesday evening at about 20:30 when the engine stopped.

Nandakandamanda - excellent summary!

They saved 2 crew members out of 43. If nobody else found, it would make (from the point of loss of human lives) the biggest sea tragedy of recent years. I can't understand what what was going on in the captain's head, how he managed to put his ship on the predictable path of typhoon. Very preventable tragedy.

What was the port of departure of the vessel and where was it going with 6000 head of cattle? A good question is why a heavily laden ship would put out to sea with two typhoons with predicted paths barrelling towards their Sea route? RIP to all those who sadly perished and 6000 terrified cattle.

@asa Time, money and cow stress. It’s like commercial airliners flying over war zones.

But will continue an inactive search? Isn't it just calling off the search?

@Goodlucktoyou

I think there is still hope if they have life vests.

Are you serious??? You die from dehydration in 3-5 days. There is no exception to that. The chances that they survived in the open sea is zero. Only if they would have been drifted to an island by luck could have they survived. But that must also have happened days ago in order to survive.

@dandakandamanda

It was a single engine ship that had a history of engine failure and propulsion problems.

What was the port of departure of the vessel and where was it going with 6000 head of cattle?

New Zealand and China in that order.

It is surely possible that a life raft could be out there on the ocean somewhere, or even blown onto an island. They might even have had time to pack a raft with food and water.

Is China helping in the search? The Philippines? The problem is, whose responsibility is it to pay to keep this search going? Japan just happened to be closest and first on the scene, but can they be expected to extend the search indefinitely? It's not as if they have called it off altogether, but they've just realistically downgraded from an active search to a regular patrol of the area.

The water is warm and storms have past. I think there is still hope if they have life vests.

China should consider importing slaughtered frozen beef, that will be very humanrized to avoid such a tragic journey for the cows!