Of the 12 passengers and seven crew members recovered, 11 passengers and six crew members suffered injuries and were treated at the Self-DefenseForce Yokosuka Hospital, but one passenger died after being hospitalized.
From inside the sunken "Fuji Maru No.1", the bodies of 25 passengers and two crew members were recovered and, furthermore, two dead bodies were collected from the sea bottom in the vicinity, totaling 30 deaths.
(Comment on cause)
1. Application of sailing and steering rules
This case involves a collision in Section V, the port of Yokosuka between the "Nadashio" navigating westward to Yokosuka after crossing the center line of the Uraga Suido Traffic Route and the "Fuji Maru No.1" running southward in the harbor area of the port of Yokosuka. Since they were restricted in action between them by the presence of a third vessel called "Eve 1", the application of the steering rule provided in Article 15 of the Law for Preventing Collisions at Sea is considered improper and the accident, therefore, should be examined from the viewpoint of "precautions which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circumstance of the case".
2. Judgement of cause
(The causes of the accident are omitted here since they are to be described in "Cause", descriptions are made of the causes which have led to such a large number of fatalities.)
1] Upon collision, the "Nadashio" still had a headway of about 3 knots and the "Fuji Maru No.1" about 6 knots; even in the case of collision in parallel, if without such headway, the "Fuji Maru No,1", so it seems, would not have run up onto the bow section of the "Nadashio", resulting in turning over on her side. The fact that both vessels had such remaining headway is found to have contributed to the disaster.
2] The full carrying capacity of the "Fuji Maru No.1" was 36 passengers and eight crew members, a total of 44. Compliance with this capacity would not have resulted in 47 killed or injured persons. The carriage of passengers and crew members in excess of the full complement, hence, is considered to have formed part of the cause.
3] As to access doors to outside from the inside of the "Fuji Maru No.1", although she was provided with three doors on the port side, in addition to one door each fore and aft, she was not furnished with starboard doors except one in the engine room casing. It is generally the case that vessels are equipped on both sides with the same number of doors leading to outside so that people can escape from either side in emergencies. However, in this case the "Fuji Maru No.1" turned over to her port side after collision and sank within a short time. When it is taken into account that the hull listed to a large degree immediately after collision, it seems unlikely that passengers and crew members inside the boat, more precisely, e.g., passenger room and saloon, could have escaped safely to outside even if she had been equipped with three doors on the starboard side.
