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Petty Officer 2Nd Class Charly H / AP
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a plume of smoke rises from the derelict Japanese ship Ryou-Un Maru after it was hit by canon fire by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter on Thursday.
Petty Officer 2Nd Class Charly H / AP
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a plume of smoke rises from a derelict Japanese ship.
AP reports: The long, lonely voyage of the Japanese ghost ship is over. A U.S. Coast Guard cutter unleashed cannon fire on the abandoned 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru on Thursday, ending a journey that began when last year's tsunami dislodged it and set it adrift across the Pacific Ocean.
It sank into waters more than 1,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Alaska, more than 150 miles from land.
RAW VIDEO: In this U.S. Coast Guard video, a USCG boat fires on a Japanese ship adrift off the coast of Alaska in an attempt to sink the unmanned vessel and clear it from shipping lanes.
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I don't get it. Why not salvage it? Surely the value of it's scrap could pay for the expense of towing it in. Did some cowboy in the C.G. decide it would be more fun to shoot it up?
That ship looked like "The Queen Mary" , compared to many migrant vessels we've seen ....
Those are some big a.. holes!
I don't understand this and I live in southeast Alaska.... so much for making sure there was no oil or fuel on board... if it was us we would be fined big time!!!!
Did you see on the video , at the end , they were trying to put out a small fire , that the shooting of it , had started .... "LOL"
I think once it's under water the fire will go out on it's own ....
Fire Fighting practice , maybe .... ??
Unless they got a last minute call ....
Save it .... !!
Excellent shot, looks really scary. Hope they won't sink it...
After all she had been through I was hoping for a last minute appeal. If I was trying to sink a boat I think this was kind of the long way about it. Not too many holes at the waterline imho.
I would think letting the fire burn would be better than say maybe firefighting practice. I would also think that it must be a fuel source burning like maybe diesel or some type of oil which the fire would consume. I hope they keep a watch on the area for oil/fuel or what other contaminents could come from the vessel. They say sinking the boat was great practice, so for that sake wouldn't boarding it and checking for full also offer a great practice experience. I can see that there is not much clear deck space so maybe they determined that risk was highr than the reward pratice may bring.
Another thing, those are not really Big A$$ holes from the gun. The gun/cannon used was 25mm which is similar in size(actually smaller) to what is used on an Apache Longbow hele(30 mm) or A-10 Warthog plane(35 mm). Don't get me wrong the 25 mm is no slouch but it is not a "big gun" for a ship
As regard to salvage I doubt it would be worth it as you havve the cost of towing, cost of cutting up and then the coast of transporting the steel to a refinery which could be thousands of miles. I also doubt any of the electronics would be worth the time of even removing them due to exposure of salt and they are most likely very cheap and very old models. If you can't double or triple your salvage costs(at a minimum) then it is not worth it
Steven Quote
Ohh it sunk an as another article say is sitting in about 1000' of water. By the way What looks so scary? Is it because they used a scary gun AHHHHHHHHHH Run Away. Maybe they could have dropped Bari Shabazz off on the boat before sinking. Heck I bet he thinks he can walk on water