When he arrived at the lifeboat, deck crew members had already commenced lowering the boat.
The Second Engineer went down to the engine room to pick up the engine logbook and other logs and, after returning to his cabin to prepare himself for the cold climate by putting on long johns, he carried the documents to the No. 1 lifeboat. About that time, almost all crew members in lifejackets gathered around the lifeboats and swung out Nos. 2 and 1 in sequence and commenced loading lifeboat equipment. Around 11:00 hours the smoke issued from the "Takeshima Maru" was in sight in the vicinity of the port beam and apparently was coming closer and closer for assistance. Around that time, the two lifeboats were at a height of about the cabin deck, not sufficiently lowered for boarding readily.
In the meantime, the "Bolivar Maru" was gradually sinking, but as crew members, without the slightest notion of her foundering, were waiting for the vessel to come for assistance, abnormal creaking sounds suddenly began to emerge slightly before 11:27 hours and voices saying, "Our vessel may sink," were raised among crew members around No. 2 lifeboat, when the order "Lower the boats" was issued from the bridge. At the moment when each crew member rushed to his respective lifeboat, the hull began to sink rapidly with a loud squeaky sound. Crew members who gathered in the vicinity of the lifeboats were unable to lower them because of the excessive inclination of the hull to forward and rushed down the cabin deck ladder toward the upper deck. The Second Engineer, unable to go forward because of the steep inclination of the hull, jumped into the sea over the hand rail. Around 11:27 hours the Bolivar Maru went down into the sea with the head down in the vicinity of the aforementioned location where she suffered a fracture.
The Second Engineer, though sucked into an eddy in the sea, came up to the surface in time and clung to a life ring which happened to be in his vicinity. He then swam and reached a capsized lifeboat and was drifting, clinging to the rolling chock, when he was rescued by the "Takeshima Maru". Two persons, namely, the Second Engineer and a catering crew member were rescued, but the Master and other thirty crew members went missing and were recognized dead at a later date.
The casualty causes are as follows: When the "Bolivar Maru" was loaded with iron ore in alternative holds, excessive shearing stresses were created over a considerably wide range of the upper portion of the bilge hopper slant plates in the boundary area between the Nos. 2 and 3 cargo holds, bringing about the possibility of the plate yielding here. In addition, the shearing stresses at the ends of the double bottom tank floor plates in the center portions of the respective holds were excessive, posing the fear of their yielding here.
