Hachinohe

The 39,910-ton wood-chip carrier Crimson Polaris went aground Wednesday while sailing inside Hachinohe Port.

The 39,910-tonne vessel, the “Crimson Polaris,” was carrying wood chips when it ran aground on Wednesday morning in Hachinohe harbour.

Enter: the Dragon Fire Fighter, an unlikely-looking bit of kit being developed by researchers from Japan’s Tohoku University and Hachinohe Institute of Technology.

The sixth thruster was damaged on March 11, 2011 when D/V Chikyu, with full crew and elementary students aboard, was struck by the tsunami caused by the Tohoku earthquake as it arrived at the port of Hachinohe.

The vessel herself survived the tsunami in the harbor at Hachinohe, north of Sendai, and many of our colleagues on board experienced the earthquake and tsunami first-hand.