How a Keralite chief engineer clung to life after shipwreck off Japanese coast

AS the state is slowly coming to terms with the capsizing of a Liberian-flagged container vessel MSC ELSA 3, retired Merchant Navy chief engineer Joseph Malcolm Oliver recalls how he had a miraculous escape after his container ship split into two off the Japanese coast after being caught in a typhoon and he was left floating in the rough sea for hours before being washed ashore in an island.

- KRISHNA KUMAR K E @Kochi

"Container ships are the most vulnerable in rough weather. It (the incident) happened in July 2002. I was then the chief engineer of the vessel M/V Co-op Venture, a Panamanian-registered cargo vessel. We were unloading cargo at the port. Then the authorities suddenly gave a tropical storm warning and asked us to take the vessel a little away from the port. We soon anchored near to the bay and there was no time and fuel to move to other safer locations," recalled 68-year-old Joseph, who had worked in large container ships, including those in the 20,000 TEU.

The typhoon 'Fengsten', that ran aground off Shibushi Bay, located off the south west main island of Kyushu, 985 kms south west of Tokyo, soon began to lash the area. There were strong winds from 4 pm onwards. Then the unthinkable happened. The ship was caught in huge waves and split into two by 8 pm.