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　"MOL FSRU Challenger" : The orange portion is the funnel ship’s chimney

When you are walking along the beach or driving by car or train along the coast, and see a ship sailing at sea in the distance, have you ever wondered to which company the ship belongs? If you look at the ship’s funnel (chimney), you can see that there are various designs used. What does the design mean? This time, we’ll look into its secrets.

What the funnel mark indicates

In fact, each ship company has its own funnel design. It is so called the "funnel mark" and enables you to identify the shipping company of the vessel for all countries worldwide. There are nearly 70 funnel marks in Japan alone! (Source: https://www.jsanet.or.jp/kids/mark/index.html)

Each shipping company, including MOL, uses its own unique colors and designs as funnel marks.

What kind of design should the funnel of MOL be?

For MOL funnels, as shown in the pictures below, all ship types have a funnel uniformly colored orange. This orange and plain funnel has been used for more than 50 years since the merger of "Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK)" and "Mitsui Steamship Co.,Ltd (Mitsui Lines)" in 1964 to form "Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd (MOL)" . How was this design arrived at?

Number one doesn't need a mark!

In 1964,when the two companies merged, OSK had the funnel mark of OSK ‘s initials in white written in chinese characters 大阪商船 (lower left picture) and Mitsui Lines had three horizontal white lines as its funnel mark, (lower right picture). Each company had its own history and pride and sailed around the world carrying this mark.
The funnel marks were memorable for the employees of both companies, but with the launch of the new company, a new one had to be found.

However, it was hard to decide what should be used.

In this situation, Tatsuo Kafuku, executive director of the negotiation committee of OSK, said. "MOL is a top company. The top position does not need an identifying mark; The second and lower positions should be marked. For example, look at the British postage stamps. The country is not printed on them. All the stamps for Germany, France and U.S. have the country name on them, but the top one doesn't need such a mark."

This led to the decision to have "No Mark".

Left: OSK, Right: Mitsui Lines (pre-mereger)

Orange color shows sunshine

Now the issue was what color to use, and this too proved problematic to resolve. Goro Tsubogawa, senior managing exective officer of OSK, and Hisanosuke Suzuki, managing exective officer of Mitsui Lines, were discussing the matter when they happened to see a cigarette box on the desk. The cigarette make was called ‛Hikari’ and the color of the box was orange (see picture).

There are various other theories, but it is generally held that the orange color of the box of ‘Hikari’ led to the birth of the "no mark orange funnel"

OSK’s last company newsletter, "the Shosen Company Bulletin（商船社内報）" says:

"The day has come,　when somewhat sadly, each funnnel mark will be wiped off, one after another, and we will sail the Seven Seas with a bold new orange-colored symbol showing our renewed spirit.”
“It won't be long before it is said that 'Even when the sun sets, ships with our vessel’s chimneys painted orange will still be seen at all times in ports worldwide. As time goes by, familiarity with the orange color by people across the world will gradually become stronger than with the old funnel marks.”

This episode dates back to around 1965, but gives a clear indication of the spirit and pride the business people back then had in their work and the company they represented.

A vessel for every need

Do you find the thinking behind the funnnel design?

Ships bring efficiency and convenience to the movement of people and cargos. Of course, vessels come in all types, from yachts to fishing boats and military ships. But the vessels that transport people and cargo are called “merchant vessels.”
Nearly everything we rely on in our everyday lives arrives by ship. 99% of commodities, energy resources, and materials imported to and exported from Japan — an island nation surrounded by the sea — travels by merchant vessels. It is no exaggeration to say that merchant ships are indispensable to our lives.

Merchant vessels have evolved to carry out their mission—the transportation of a diverse range of cargos safely, economically, and efficiently. Ships called “freighters” transport general cargo and finished products, tankers transport crude oil, bulk carriers move massive amounts of iron ore, and car carriers bring automobiles to markets across the sea. Over the years, “dedicated bulkships” have been introduced and refined to carry specific cargoes. At the same time, vessels have become ever larger, to boost efficiency and realize economies of scale by maximizing the amount of cargo per voyage.

The Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) Group is a multimodal ocean shipping operator with a global fleet of merchant vessels that support everyday life and industries worldwide. MOL Group vessels come in all shapes, types, and sizes, making the group an “ocean shipping supermarket” and we will continue to transport various cargoes to ports around the world proudly displaying our orange-colored funnels.

If you are curious about what kind of ships transport the cargoes we need for our life and industry, the structure of merchant ships, characteristics, etc...Click Here！

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