All 17 seafarers have been rescued from a sinking vehicle carrier off Indonesia.
The Indonesia-flagged, 200-lane-metre Serasi I (built 1990) suffered a hull breach in a collision with Temas Line’s 3,250-dwt general cargo ship Batanghari Mas (built 2010) early on Thursday in the Bangka Strait, search and rescue (SAR) officials reported.
The Japanese-built, 6,700-gt vessel was flooded with seawater.
The master had originally told SAR agencies that he intended to ground the 501-ceu car carrier, but was soon forced to order an evacuation.
The accident was initially blamed on bad weather.
A rescue operation was launched with the Muntok SAR standby unit, the national SAR agency Basarnas, the navy and the police.
The 17 crew members took to life rafts and were later picked up by another passing ship.
They were later brought to the port of Tanjung Kalian in the town of Muntok.
The ship was servicing the Patimban to Belawan route when the accident occurred.
It was not clear how much cargo was on board.
Operating for the owner since 2007
The Serasi I has been operated by Toyofuji Serasi Indonesia since 2007. The company is part of Japan’s Toyofuji Shipping, according to UK shipbroker Clarksons.
There had been no AIS update from the ship since 6 November.
Newspapers published a list of the crew members, including Captain Subur, chief officer M Aksa and second officer Wahyudi.
The car carrier is classed by Japan’s Nippon Kaiji Kyokai.
VesselsValue assesses the ship as worth $6.24m.
