Massive car transporter bound for Rhode Island sinks in mid-Atlantic
LISBON — A large cargo ship carrying cars from Germany to the United States sank in the mid-Atlantic on Tuesday, 13 days after a fire broke out on board, the ship’s director and the Portuguese Navy said. .
The Felicity Ace, a 650ft freighter loaded with 3,965 vehicles – including Audis, Lamborghinis, Porsches and nearly 200 Bentleys – was en route to the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown, RI, when the fire broke out. is declared on February 16. Crew members were rescued after the fire of unknown origin broke out.
The ship sank about 400 kilometers (250 miles) off the Portuguese Azores islands while under tow, MOL Ship Management in Singapore said in a statement. A rescue team had extinguished the fire.
The 200-metre-long (650ft) ship heeled over to starboard before sinking, the ship’s manager said.
The Portuguese Navy confirmed the sinking, saying it happened outside Portuguese waters. A Portuguese Air Force helicopter evacuated the 22 crew when the fire first broke out, setting the ship adrift.
Ocean tugs equipped with firefighting equipment had hosed down the ship’s hull to cool it.
It was unclear how many cars aboard the ship, but ships the size of the Felicity Ace can carry at least 4,000 vehicles.
European automakers declined to discuss the number of vehicles and models on board, but Porsche customers in the United States have been contacted by their dealers, the company said.
“We are already working to replace each car affected by this incident and the first new cars will be built soon,” Angus Fitton, vice president of public relations at Porsche Cars North America, Inc., told The Associated Press in an e-mail. -mail.
Joshua Vavra and his wife, Lyndsey, have been waiting since November to get behind the wheel of their $65,000 Porsche Macan SUV. Vavra, who lives in Chester, NH, told the Boston Globe he discovered the fire while visiting Rennlist, a website frequented by Porsche enthusiasts.
“Wouldn’t it be terrible if my wife’s car was on it?” he wondered.
Sure enough, a phone call to his Porsche dealership in Stratham, NH, confirmed the suspicions.
“For now, they recommend that we replace the order,” Vavra said.
John Kennedy, regional vice president of operations for the McGovern Automotive Group, told The Globe on February 19 that he received a push notification on his phone on Thursday alerting him to the fire. He estimates that between five and eight cars bound for the company’s Audi dealership in Shrewsbury are stuck on the ship, based on previous shipment estimates from Audi’s Volkswagen Group, and the fact that most of his shipments arrive in Rhode Island.
Dealer inventory is already at an all-time low due to pandemic-related global delivery disruptions and computer chip shortages. Audi Shrewsbury would normally have 175 to 200 vehicles in stock, Kennedy said. Lately, he’s lucky if there are two dozen.
“If you hear five to eight cars could be on this ship, that’s a very large percentage of cars we would have for sale,” he said.
The ship was carrying both electric and non-electric vehicles, according to Portuguese authorities. Suspicion over what started the fire on February 16 has fallen on lithium batteries used in electric vehicles, although authorities say they have no solid proof of the cause.
Authorities feared the ship was polluting the ocean. The ship was carrying 2,000 metric tons (2,200 tons) of fuel and 2,000 metric tons (2,200 tons) of oil. It can carry over 17,000 metric tons (18,700 tonnes) of cargo.
The Portuguese Navy said in a statement that only a few pieces of wreckage and a small oil stain were visible where the ship sank. Tugboats were breaking up the patch with pipes, he said.
A Portuguese Air Force plane and a Portuguese Navy vessel are to remain on the scene on the lookout for signs of pollution.
Material from previously published stories was used in this report.
