Cargo ship carrying new Porsches and VWs burns in the Atlantic

Cargo ship carrying new Porsches and VWs burns in the Atlantic
Ronan Glon 17 February 2022 https://sg.news.yahoo.com/cargo-ship-carrying-porsches-volkswagens-13310...

Panama-flagged car carrier Felicity Ace caught fire in the Atlantic Ocean while transporting an undisclosed number of vehicles, including Porsche and Volkswagen models. The ship's 22 crewmembers were rescued by the Portuguese Navy, but the fate of the cars is unknown.

Felicity Ace was sailing from Emden, Germany, to Davisville in Rhode Island when a fire broke out on one of its decks. While it's still too early to tell what caused the fire, it was serious enough that it couldn't be put out using the equipment that the crew had access to on board. The ship sent out a distress signal south of the Portuguese-owned Faial Island, which is almost in the middle of the Atlantic, and nearby vessels (including an oil tanker named Resilient Warrior) rushed to the scene to rescue the crewmembers, some already on life boats, before the Portuguese Navy arrived. It doesn't sound like anyone was seriously hurt, though details about the incident are still emerging.

Website FleetMon learned that, as of February 16, the 656-foot-long ship was abandoned and drifting east. It adds that tug boats will be dispatched to tow the Felicity Ace to a harbor and that the ship will most likely be declared a total loss due to the damage caused by the fire.

Portugal's Navy published a series of photos taken on the deck of an oil tanker that show the ship burning in the distance, flames and smoke visible, and it confirmed in a statement that the Felicity Ace was carrying cars. Several sources said most of the vehicles in the hold were new Porsche and Volkswagen models. "We are aware of an incident aboard the Felicity Ace, a specialized cargo ship carrying certain Porsche vehicles," the Stuttgart-based company told some of its customers according to screen shots posted on enthusiast forum Rennlist.

If this story sounds familiar, it's likely because over 2,000 cars built by Audi and Porsche (including four 911 GT2 RS models headed to customers in Brazil) were lost when an Italian container ship called "Grande America" caught fire and sank off of the French Atlantic coast in 2019. Rather than refund the buyers, Porsche chose to put the limited-edition 911 GT2 RS back into production to rebuild the lost units.

Built in Japan in 2005, the Felicity Ace is equipped specifically to carry cars; it's not configured to transport other types of cargo. It's about twice as long as a football field, 105 feet wide, and its deadweight tonnage (payload for ships, essentially) checks in at almost 20,000 tons.

Stay tuned for more on this developing story.