This lovely Sanyo Kaiun Shokai Co., Ltd. tankship sailed thru the Kanmon Straits and past the pollution producing factories of Kitakyushu Japan in the early afternoon of November 11, 2024. The tanker Showa Maru #8 often travels thru the strait going to and from Oita and Hakata (Fukuoka).
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| Japanese tankship in the Kanmon Strait |
Vessel Name: SHOWA MARU No.8 第八正和丸
Length: 48.50 meters
Width: 9.60 meters
Flag: Japan
Type: Tankship / Tank Ship / Tanker
Call Sign: JL6217
Gross Tonnage: 363.00 G/T
Built: March 20, 2019
Navagation Area: Coastal
Cargo Capacity: 666 kl
Pump Capacity: 500 x 2
Length: 48.50 meters
Width: 9.60 meters
Flag: Japan
Type: Tankship / Tank Ship / Tanker
Call Sign: JL6217
Gross Tonnage: 363.00 G/T
Built: March 20, 2019
Navagation Area: Coastal
Cargo Capacity: 666 kl
Pump Capacity: 500 x 2
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| 第八正和丸 SHOWA MARU No.8 (Dai Hachi Showa Maru) |
This vessel is probably carrying kerosene or some other sort of 白油 or "light oil." Even in the 21st century and with modern housing, many Japanese still like to use kerosene heaters in their homes and offices during the colder winter months. Ship Freakazoid is not a fan of this practice, but a declining population of 123,753,041 people can't all be wrong, right?
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| Showa Maru No. 8 sailing between Shimonoseki and Kitakyushu Japan |
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| Kitakyushites fishing as a tanker passes thru the Kanmon Strait |
Kitakyushites in the foreground are fishing as the vessel is passing by NIPPON STEEL 九州製鉄所. I wonder if they caught anything besides a lungful of factory smoke? And, check out how the water on the right side of the fishing folks looks higher than the water on their left. Weird...
No filters. No editing. Photographs were taken with Ship Freakazoid's old secondhand Olympus E-520 DSLR using a Zuiko 150mm lens. The hazy sky and pollution you see is real and not some Instagram filter or AI generated BS.