Nippon Salvage has been given an emergency response contract to rescue the burning car carrier Sincerity Ace (built 2009), which is drifting dangerously off the Pacific Island of Oahu.
It is understood the Nippon Salvage tug Koyo Maru is heading out to the ship under instruction to tow it back to Japan. The vessel is expected to arrive back in Japan on 25 January.
It is likely that Nippon Salvage has been appointed under a Japanese Open Form contract – a local version of the Lloyd’s Open Form (LOF) contract. The Sincerity Ace is owned by Japanese shipping company Shoei Kisen.
Crew of the 6,400-ceu car carrier abandoned ship after a major fire broke out in the cargo holds last week. The blaze claimed the lives of five seafarers.
It is understood the Sincerity Ace was carrying 3,500 Nissan cars from Japan to the US when the fire broke out.
In a separate incident, Smit Salvage has been appointed on LOF terms to salvage the Hapag-Lloyd 7,510-teu containership Yantian Express (built 2002).
The Smit salvage tug Smit Nicobar is currently attending the casualty.
The Yantian Express caught fire off the coast of Canada.
The ship was on its way from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Halifax via the Suez Canal when the fire broke out. At present, it is about 800 nautical miles off the coast of Nova Scotia.
