A cargo ship carrying dozens of automobiles together with Volkswagens and Porsches continues to be adrift within the Atlantic Ocean after it caught fireplace Wednesday and its 22-person crew was evacuated.
The Felicity Ace cargo ship departed from Germany on February 10, and was scheduled to reach at a U.S. port on February 23, in line with MarineTraffic.com. A fireplace began within the ship's cargo maintain and the crew cleared out.
The vessel is reportedly nonetheless stranded at sea, in line with automotive information web site The Drive.
The crew was evacuated after broadcasting a misery sign, whereas the ship was close to Portugal's Azores Islands within the Atlantic, a spokesperson for the Portuguese Navy advised the Related Press. The ship can maintain over 17,000 tons of cargo and usually carries automobiles.
The spokesperson additionally mentioned that a Portuguese Navy ship had visited the Felicity Ace to find out whether or not the hearth may put the 650-foot-long vessel vulnerable to sinking or polluting the area, per the AP.
The ship can be reportedly carrying practically 200 Bentleys and a at the moment unknown variety of Audis, The Drive reported. A spokesperson for Bentley confirmed to the outlet that 189 of their automobiles are on board, which The Drive estimated may very well be valued within the tens of tens of millions of dollars.
The Felicity Ace is at the moment carrying about 2,500 automobiles, together with over 1,000 Porsches, a spokesperson for Porsche advised Autoblog, an automotive information web site.
A number of customers on numerous automobile discussion board web sites have posted a message they obtained from Porsche that mentioned the corporate was "conscious of an incident aboard the Felicity Ace," The Drive reported. A number of of the individuals who made the posts had reportedly speculated that it may point out a automobile they ordered and haven't but obtained could also be on board the ship.
The message from Porsche reportedly mentioned the cargo ship is carrying "sure Porsche automobiles," and advised prospects that the dealership they ordered the automobile from would have extra info on what prospects could be affected as soon as Porsche is aware of "the total scope of the difficulty."
The reason for the hearth continues to be being investigated, and the one at the moment reported element is that it began within the cargo maintain.
Losses of cargo ships and different transport vessels have decreased lately from a peak over the past decade of 128 vessels that weighed over 100 tons misplaced in 2012, to 48 in 2019, and 49 in 2020—18 of which have been designated as "cargo ships"—within the Allianz yearly Security and Delivery Evaluate.
"Foundered," "wrecked/stranded," and "fireplace/explosion" have been the most typical causes of losses in 2020, in line with the evaluate.
Newsweek has reached out to Volkswagen Group and Mitsui OSK Strains, the Japanese firm that owns Felicity Ace, for remark.
Replace: 2/17/22, 4:11 p.m. EST: This story has been up to date with extra info.
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