Peak Oil: The End Of Ferry Services Between Japan And Taiwan?
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 07.20.08
Before air travel, how on earth did people get around the globe? For a brief moment in history, there were steam ships and then diesel ferries. Now, due to high fuel costs, such ferries may no longer be a solution to your travel needs.
Arimura Industries, which has operated passenger ferries between Japan and Taiwan, ceased operations this year. The company operated under bankruptcy protection for some time and tried to work a rehabilitation plan, but was turned down, according to Japan Update.
If you visit Yokohama, the port city just south of Tokyo, I recommend the Hikawa Maru (11,622 gt) in Yamashita Park. The Hikawa Maru was the main passenger ship between Japan and Seattle and San Francisco in the United States before WW2, called the "Queen of the Pacific". Many celebrities who visited Japan in those days came here on the Hikawa Maru, including Helen Keller and Charlie Chaplin. It was a slow, wonderful journey accross the Pacific Ocean, probably a lot more interesting than today's 12 hour jumbo jet flights.
When oil was at its cheapest, Japanese ferry lines started expanding overseas. In 1970, the Ferry Kampu began to ply between Shimonoseki (Japan) and Pusan (South Korea). This ship was the first international ferry between Japan and other countries after WW2.
Tsuyoshi Ishiyama, a writer who knows a lot about Japanese ferries, notes:
But oil prices rose very high because of the Oil Crises of 1973, and what was worse, tourists decreased. The high coast and depression hit ferry companies which operated the so-called luxury car ferries. In 1976, the Kagoshima-based Kagoshima Shosen made planes for a luxury ferry between Kagoshima (Kyushu) and Kobe (Honshu), but failed to be realized. Luxury ships disappeared from Japanese waters one by one, and such ferries as freighters replaced them. For example, the Shin Nihonkai Ferry's New Suzuran (16,250gt, 1979) and New Yukari (16,239gt, 1979); the Hankyu Ferry's New Yamato (11,919gt, 1983), New Miyako (11,914gt, 1984), etc. were such ferries as freighters.
It makes me a little sad to note that sea ferries are no longer seen as a sustainable solution to overseas travel. But as oil prices remain high, which is more attractive as a long-term business idea: sea ferries or jumbo jets?
Below: a photo from the Hikawa Maru 1st class cabin. This unique ship helped Jewish refugees escape Nazi Germany via Japan. Later, the ship avoided disaster because it was used as a hospital ship. Something jumbo jets would have a difficult time to do, in times of sustained difficulties.
Written by Martin Frid at greenz.jp
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I remember reading as a child about solar sails being used to power space ships,I just wonder is it time fo a wind and solar powered ocean going fleet
Peak Oil is the beginning of the end for many things:
According to energy investment banker Matthew Simmons, global oil production is now declining, from 85 million barrels per day to 60 million barrels per day by 2015. During the same time demand will increase 14%.
This is like a 45% drop in 7 years. No one can reverse this trend, nor can we conserve our way out of this catastrophe. Because the demand for oil is so high, it will always be higher than production; thus the depletion rate will continue until all recoverable oil is extracted.
Alternatives will not even begin to fill the gap. And most alternatives yield electric power, but we need liquid fuels for tractors/combines, 18 wheel trucks, trains, ships, and mining equipment.
We are facing the collapse of the highways that depend on diesel trucks for maintenance of bridges, cleaning culverts to avoid road washouts, snow plowing, roadbed and surface repair. When the highways fail, so will the power grid, as highways carry the parts, transformers, steel for pylons, and high tension cables, all from far away. With the highways out, there will be no food coming in from "outside," and without the power grid virtually nothing works, including home heating, pumping of gasoline and diesel, airports, communications, and automated systems.
This is documented in a free 48 page report that can be downloaded, website posted, distributed, and emailed: http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html
I used to live in NH, but moved to a safer place. Anyone interested in relocating to a nice, pretty, sustainable area, good climate with much rain and good soil?
The thing to keep in mind when comparing planes and ships for the longer distances is that a jet is so fast you spend the journey sitting in your seat. You can't expect passengers to just sit in a seat for four days straight on a ship, they need more space. Cargo, in contrast, packs just as tight on a container ship as on a cargo jet. So a boat configured cruise ship style isless efficient than a jet. Configured more troop ship style, it would be more competitive but not very comfortable.
Ships, in particular large cruise and cargo ships, don't have to be oil-powered. The have been a handful of nuclear-powered civilian vessels, built in the 60's and 70's. At least one is still operational. At the time oil was cheap so they didn't catch on, but if oil prices stay high we should see these return. Ocean-crossing ships are not going anywhere- without them, the world would be as fragmented as it was in the 1600's. This wouldn't work for planes for safety and security reasons, of course. But "Peak oil" doesn't mean "peak shipping."
By the way, dr.wino, we have wind-powered ships. They use sails. Most likely we will see some resurgence of ships that are at least partly powered by sails. But solar power is too dilute to be used directly by ships; it would require a surface are greater than that of the ship itself. The most realistic way to have a solar-powered ship would be to use solar power (or any other electricity) to create synthetic fuels. This is purely a problem of infrastructure and investment, and it can also help with airplane, truck, and car travel.
And Clifford, if you wish to believe that the world is ending and can't be fixed, then go right ahead. I'm going to ignore you and work to fix it anyway, because you are mistaken. There is plenty of clean energy out there from a variety of sources. Electricity can be converted into other forms for storage of for use as fuel. Any substances made from fossil hydrocarbon can similarly be synthesized. We have the science and technology to bring prosperity to all of mankind and to do it sustainably. It may be expensive, but not nearly as expensive as the alternative. The status quo WILL cause irreparable harm to the world and to civilization, but we have the power and resources to fix it.
Nice blog post. MDO cost is becoming a problem for almost all ferry services worldwide. They need to be operating at half the engine power of the past, or engineer whole new powerplants for the vessels. This is a similar problem that commercial air transport has, the need to re-engineer whole new types of jet engines. The shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturers have failed modern day civilization so far with their lack of foresight.
Aloha, Brad