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 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.
The ship was carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including some luxury brands like Porsches, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. The value of the cargo has been estimated to be over $400 million.
The fire on the Panama-flagged Felicity Ace 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.
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.
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.
Some of the cars on board were reportedly electric 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 MOL and owned by one of its subsidiaries, Snowscape Car Carriers S.A.
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