4. Collision between the Submarine "Nadashio" and the Pleasure Fishing Boat "Fuji Maru No.1",
Outline of the Case
This is a collision which occurred in the eastern part of the port of Yokosuka at about 15:38 hours on July 23, 1988, between the "Nadashio", a tear drop type submarine which belonged to Submarine Division 2, Submarine Flotilla 2, Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the "Fuji Maru No.1", a pleasure fishing boat converted from a steel single deck fishing boat with a forecastle. At the time, the "Nadashio" was manned by the Commander of Submarine Division 2, the Commanding Officer and 73 other crew members. After an exercise for the deployment of a Self-Defense fleet in waters NE of Izu O Sima, she started her voyage toward her home port. She proceeded northward through the Uraga Suido Traffic Route until she reached around Daini Kaiho and passed the Uraga Suido No. 5 center light buoy, where she turned her course to port. She was proceeding westward, keeping the "Eve 1" running under sail on her port bow. Conversely hand, the "Fuji Maru No. 1", crewed a Skipper and eight crew members and carrying 39 passengers (one of them a child of less than 12 years of age), was sailing southward in an automatic steering mode, for pleasure fishing, after passing the Uraga Suido Traffic Route No. 5 center light buoy, keeping in sight the "Eve 1" running under sail slightly to the port of her stem. The starboard bow of the southbound "Fuji Maru No.1" and the starboard bow of the "Nadashio", which was headed in a westerly direction, collided when almost parallel to each other.
As a result of the collision, the "Nadashio" suffered dents in her starboard bow and the "Fuji Maru No. 1" sustained a large hole in her forward portion, through which she was flooded and sank, killing 30 persons, including crew members and passengers, and injuring 16 others.
Concerning this accident, the Yokohama Local Marine Accidents Inquiry Agency pronounced a judgement on July 25, 1989, and the commissioner of the Yokohama Local Marine Accidents Commissioner's Office made an application for inquiry in the second instance, and the High Marine Accidents Inquiry Agency delivered a judgement on August 10, 1990.
The Skipper of the "Fuji Maru No.1", examinee, appealed, after that, to the Tokyo High Court, seeking avoidance of the judgement, but his appeal was dismissed on February 28, 1994.
Summary of the cause of the collision between the Submarine "Nadashio" and the Pleasure Fishing Boat "Fuji Maru No.1" was pronounced by the High Marine Accidents Inquiry Agency on August 10, 1990.
