M/V Cougar Ace - Marine Salvage Through A Geek’s Glasses

February 27th, 2008 · Comments - by Richard -

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M/V Cougar Ace - Listing Ship

Wired Magazine is featuring a post on the salvage of the car carrier Cougar Ace. Here are the first two paragraphs of the post:

Latitude 48° 14 North. Longitude 174° 26 West.

Almost midnight on the North Pacific, about 230 miles south of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. A heavy fog blankets the sea. There’s nothing but the wind spinning eddies through the mist.

Out of the darkness, a rumble grows. The water begins to vibrate. Suddenly, the prow of a massive ship splits the fog. Its steel hull rises seven stories above the water and stretches two football fields back into the night. A 15,683-horsepower engine roars through the holds, pushing 55,328 tons of steel. Crisp white capital letters — COUGAR ACE — spell the ship’s name above the ocean froth. A deep-sea car transport, its 14 decks are packed with 4,703 new Mazdas bound for North America. Estimated cargo value: $103 million.

The post, titled, “Techno-Cowboys of the Deep Sea: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace,” chronicles the mustering of a salvage crew from across the globe, the challenge of the salvage, and the death of a team member. The article is replete with Coast Guard footage and diagrams. Reading like a Spike Walker book, this piece gives the non mariner a unique look into the forces that makes our work elusive.

Don’t miss this compelling read by Joshua Davis and stunning infographics from Dan Foley.

M/V Cougar Ace

The full Wired Magazine post:

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd

About The Author

Captain Richard Rodriguez is a US Coast Guard approved instructor based in the San Juan Islands, Washington. Also a Rescue Tug Captain, Richard's posts on his blog "Bitterend" feature Vessel Assist calls that include live tracking of his vessel.
Full Profile: Richard

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Categories: Salvage

Tags: · alaska, Cougar Ace, marine salvage, wired

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Bart VdV 7 months ago 1 point
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Wow, this must be the most epical job ever.
Reminds of the movie 'Armageddon'.

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http://www.jandenul.com

John Denham 7 months ago 1 point
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Excellent video and audio report on another car ship accident. With Boots & Coots firefigfhers and Titan Salvage all we need is JohnWayne to play the role. The possible pollution factor is alarming; how often it is almost! I read into this, somewhere we have licensed people either not doing their job properly, or are incompetent or not supervising . Slack tanks is one thing, but deballasting a sea is unbelieable. There is always the possibility that the bridge watch officer was assigned this "routine" task. Many ship have ballant controls on the bridge . Except for some heroic efforts, Alaska would be involved in another oily mess.

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