The Felicity Ace car carrier has sunk in the Atlantic Ocean.
The ship’s manager, MOL Ship Management (Singapore), confirmed that the vessel sank around 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday approximately 220 nautical miles off the Azores Islands, citing initial reports from the on-site salvage team.
Salvage vessels will remain in the area to monitor the situation.
The sinking of the Felicity Ace comes nearly two weeks after a fire broke out in the ship’s cargo area.
Reporting has indicated Felicity Ace was carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including some luxury brands like Porsches, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, along with VW and Audis. The value of the cargo has been estimated to be over $400 million.
The fire on the Panama-flagged ship started Wednesday, February 16, approximately 90 nautical miles southwest of the Azores as the ship was underway from Embden, Germany, where Volkswagen AG has a manufacturing plant, to the U.S. East Coast.
All 22 crew members abandoned ship and brought to safety.
Photo released March 1, 2022 showing the Felicity Ace. Photo: Marinha PT
A salvage team was reported to have boarded the drifting ship by helicopter last week. A tow line was connected and the salvage tug ‘Bear’ began towing it to the Azores under escort by two additional tugs, ALP Guard and Dian Kingdom, together with a large anchor handling tug with additional firefighting capability, named V.B. Hispanic.
A February 25th update said the stability of Felicity Ace remained stable and smoke was no longer visible. But today’s update said the ship had developed starboard list.
Felicity Ace seen burning in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands. Picture was released Friday, February 18, 2022 by the Portuguese Navy. Photo courtesy Portuguese Navy
Before today, the last photos released of the vessel, published way back on February 18th, showed burn scars from bow to stern, indicating the fire had likely engulfed the entire garage area. The lead photo up top, released today, confirms that the fire did even more damage.
Some of the cars on board were reportedly elecrtic vehicles with lithium-ion batteries that complicated firefighting efforts. Unfortunately with the ship now at the bottom of the ocean, we may never know what caused the initial fire or contributed to its spread.
“Further information will be provided as it becomes available,” MOL said in its update.
Built in 2005, the Felicity Ace is operated by Japanese shipping company MOL and owned by one of its subsidiaries, Snowscape Car Carriers S.A.
SMIT Salvage, part of Dutch marine company Boskalis, was the appointed salvor.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated a dozen individuals and vessels as blocked property for their roles in financing the Iranian-based Houthis’...
HOUSTON, July 18 (Reuters) – The number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers waiting to load at Freeport LNG in Texas has increased since the U.S. second largest exporter of the supercooled gas...
By Krishna Karra, Alex Longley and Verity Ratcliffe (Bloomberg) — An oil slick extending more than 125 miles appeared in the Red Sea, satellite images show, a fresh environmental disaster in...
5 hours ago
Total Views: 394
Why Join the gCaptain Club?
Access exclusive insights, engage in vibrant discussions, and gain perspectives from our CEO.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.