'' Bulk Jupiter '' was a Bahamas registered cargo ship. She sank off the coast of Vietnam on 2 January 2015.

History

Sinking

On 2 January 2015, ''Bulk Jupiter'' sank off the coast of Vũng Tàu, Vietnam. She departed from Kuantan, Malaysia on 30 December 2014 with a crew of 19 Filipino sailors and a cargo of 46,400 tons of

bauxite Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

. The Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (Vietnam MRCC) and the Japanese Coast Guard received distress signals at 22:54 hours UTC on 1 January in position lat 9".01' 01:001N, long 109" 15' 26.01E from ''Bulk Jupiter'', but were unable to make contact with the vessel. Dispatched rescue vessels found one crew member, the ship's cook, who was rescued and was the only survivor. Later searches found two other bodies. The remaining 16 crew members are presumed dead. Early reports indicated that the likely cause of the sinking was sudden loss of stability ( free surface effect) from the

cargo.

Investigation and corrective action

IMO has approved a circular to warn ships' masters about the liquefaction hazards of bauxite.

References

2006 ships Ships built by Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding 2015 disasters in Vietnam Merchant ships of the Bahamas Maritime incidents in 2015 Maritime incidents in Vietnam Shipwrecks in the South China Sea {{Merchantship-stub