The Kinkasan Maru ( Japanese 金華 山 丸 ) was a Japanese general cargo ship. It was the first larger seagoing ship with a completely automated machine system and controls from the bridge.
In March 1959, the Japanese Ministry of Transport commissioned the Technical Committee of the Japanese shipbuilding industry to study various problems and possibilities of ship automation. After the joint work by various sub-committees and bodies, the construction of the Kinkasan Maru was commissioned. The ship was launched on August 12, 1961 as hull number 662 at the Mitsui Tamano Engineering & Shipbuilding yard in Tamano for the Mitsui Senpaku Kaisha shipping company. It was the lead ship of a class of two ships. The sister ship was the Kasugasan Maru ( 春日 山 丸 ). The two units were smaller versions of the Mitsui Senpaku Kaisha standard freighter adapted for the St. Lawrence Seaway . The Kinkasan Maru was in service from November 1961 to 1979, initially for Mitsui, later Mitsui OSK and was scrapped in Kaohsiung in 1979.
technology
The basic design of the Kinkasan Maru did not differ significantly from contemporary general cargo ship designs . The slightly rounded bridge house was arranged in the middle of the ship, the hull had two continuous decks, a raised forecastle, a moderately sloping stern without a bulge and a cruiser stern. In front of and behind the superstructures there were three conventionally divided cargo holds. The transhipment facilities consisted of contemporary loading trees. The ship had refrigerated holds and deep tanks for liquid cargoes.
The ship's propulsion system consisted of a Mitsui B&W 874-VT2BF-160 eight-cylinder diesel engine with an output of 12,000 hp at 115 revolutions, which acted directly on a four-blade fixed propeller with a diameter of 5.8 meters. The maximum speed during the test drive was 18.25 knots. On the one hand, the automation of the main and auxiliary engines as well as numerous auxiliary machines of the machine system and on the other hand the design for remote control of essential parts of the machine system from the bridge was remarkable.
literature
Remote and Automatic Controls on a Japanese Cargo Liner . In: The Motor Ship . Vol. 43, No.503 . Temple Press, London June 1962, pp.99-102 .
^ Donald H. Kern: History and current State of shipboard Automation in: Innovation in the Maritime Industry , National Research Council (US). Maritime Transportation Research Board, National Academies, 1979, p. 136
