Ever Given and Golden Ray are just two of the most recent catastrophes, and now the latest entry is Felicity Ace on the board. Felicity Ace , is a massive cargo ship, that was carrying thousands of Volkswagen Group vehicles, caught fire near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, two days ago, on Wednesday afternoon.
The 22 members on board were evacuated and taken to local hotel by the Portuguese Navy and an Air Force helicopter, that came to the rescue together with other 4 nearby merchant ships. The ship itself was left unmanned and adrift until yesterday, but still under surveillance of a Portuguese warship, through the Ponta Delgada Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), monitoring the ship. Environment has not been affected for now, and there are no traces of pollution in the area so far. It was towed today to the neared shelter, in the Azores for now, waiting for the sixteen experts from SMIT Salvage team, that was mobilized, together with large equipment that is en route from Spain and the Netherlands to assist with the fire fighting.
Onboard they were 3965 cars, mostly luxury vehicles – around 100 VW Golf R, GTI, Arteon and ID.4, 1100 Porsche , 189 new Bentleys plus more Audi and supposedly Lamborghinis ) according to Automotive News Europe and Car and Driver. All companies are saying that every customers that were affected by this event, were contacted by their dealers and they are working on a solution, but nobody knows yet the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage. The ship left port of Emden, Germany on February 10th, and was scheduled to arrive in Davisville, Rhode Island, US on February 23rd according to MarineTraffic.com, and caught on fire on the 6thd day of voyage, on February 16th from unknown causes.
Felicity Ace is sailing under Panamanian flag, is 650 ft long and 106 ft wide, almost the size of 3 football stadiums put together, was built in 2005 and is the second vessel, that made the VW group lose vehicles at sea. When the Grande America liner caught fire and sank in 2019, it went down with four limited Porsche 911 GT2 RS, 33 other Porsches and more than 2000 brand new Audis. We hope that the damage this time is not so great, since the ship is still floating and multiple equipment has been deployed to help put down the fire. Catastrophes happen, we should be thankful that there were no casualties, the environment was not harmed and hopefully the fire would be put out soon, without further damage to the ship or cargo. Even though there will be a delay for the customers around country and auto market in the US will be affected, we will try to stay close to this subject and keep you updated if we get more information.
Below you can see how the Felicity Ace’s crew members, were transferred from the oil tanker Resilient Warrior, by the Portuguese Air Force with the helicopter, to the nearest safe place in the Azores. The tanker was the first to respond the distress signal that Felicity Ace has sent, and rescued all the crew members, and requested help for transfer them, since he was not able to attend next harbor for the crew transfer. Thanks for the video to Força Aérea Portuguesa
Update ! March 2nd – Felicity Ace, the 6400 CEU car carrier which caught fire on February 16th, while crossing the Atlantic Ocean , lost stability and sank on March 1st , after many attempts to be saved or towed to safety. The Portuguese Navy stated that some debris and a small stain of oily waste are recorded on site, and is being monitored by Department of Pollution of the National Maritime Authority and by European Maritime Security Agency. The cause of fire remains unknown. The analysis from the risk company , is showing that the total US Dollar value of goods on the ship is estimated to be around $438 million.
