Reports are that the fire has been extinguished. The ship will be towed to a European port IF it is seaworthy.

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Experts estimate the Volkswagen Group Q1 profit losses from the incident may exceed $450M (Forbes, paywall). That figure does not account for environmental costs, the ship itself, or the cost of the rescue, among other items.

Felicity Ace Providence Journal

Forbes article

February 22: Ship cooling off, salvage crews will board soon, total cost a lot higher than original estimates

Wall Street Journal: Salvage Crews Set to Board Burning Ship Carrying Luxury-Car Payload

By Patricia Kowsmann and William Boston

Updated Feb. 22, 2022 5:05 pm ET

The blaze aboard the Felicity Ace, a 60,000-ton merchant ship loaded with luxury cars adrift in the Atlantic, is receding, which could allow the company charged with salvaging the ship to board it on Wednesday and stop it from drifting further out to sea, a Portuguese navy official said.

The Felicity Ace was traveling from Emden, Germany to a port in Davisville, R.I., when it caught fire a week ago as it sailed near Portugal’s Azores Islands. The 22-member crew abandoned the ship and its cargo of around 4,000 expensive luxury cars, including models from Porsche, Bentley, Audi, Lamborghini and other Volkswagen AG brands.

“There are no visible fire spots anymore, and there’s no more smoke,” said João Manuel Mendes Cabeças, captain of the nearest Portuguese naval port on the island of Faial in the Azores. “The temperature inside the ship is still high, but at least the crew can be on the main deck.”

Once the experts and firefighters from SMIT Salvage, the Dutch company contracted to salvage the ship, can board and attach the vessel to tugboats, they can stop the ship from drifting, a key step in stabilizing it and keeping it from sinking.

SMIT Salvage didn’t say whether its crew would board the ship on Wednesday.

The Felicity Ace, a cargo ship carrying thousands of cars including Porsches and Bentleys to the port of Davisville, R.I., caught fire last week and was adrift in the mid-Atlantic after the crew was evacuated. Burning electric vehicle batteries complicated efforts to battle the blaze. Photo: Portuguese Navy
The ship has drifted so far out to sea that it is close to leaving Portuguese waters, Mr. Cabeças said. It is also so far from the islands that the helicopter SMIT Salvage planned to use to shuttle its crews out to the ship doesn’t have sufficient range for the journey. Instead, Portuguese air force pilots will fly the crews out on Wednesday.

The salvage crews won’t be able to go into the hold to extinguish fires until the temperature is low enough to allow firefighters to work safely, a spokesman for the salvage company said.

After the salvage crews have harnessed the ship and put the fires out, the focus will shift to determining the extent of the damage and the cause of the fire, especially whether electric vehicles on board caught fire and set the rest of the ship’s cargo ablaze or made it more difficult to get the fire under control.

Incident insurance experts Russell Group Ltd. this week estimated that the cargo on board the Felicity Ace was worth about $438 million, of which the cars on board accounted for about $401 million. Russell estimated that VW could face losses of at least $155 million.

“These figures showed once again the precariousness of global supply chains. The incident comes at a bad time for global car makers who are in the middle of a supply chain crisis sourcing semiconductors, resulting in new delays for new cars,” said Suki Basi, Russell Group managing director, in a statement.

A VW spokesman declined to comment on the estimates.

MOL Ship Management, which owns the company that operates the Felicity Ace, said Tuesday that two large oceangoing tugboats had now arrived from Gibraltar, bringing reinforcement for the salvage crews that are dousing the ship’s exterior in an effort to weaken the fires inside.

Two additional salvage ships with fire fighting equipment and towing capabilities are en route to the Felicity Ace, MOL said. One is expected to arrive on Wednesday and another on Feb. 26.

Link

I called the information hotline and suggested that the fire could be put out quickly with a torpedo.

They hung up on me....

My wife read that a local car dealership owner has his personal Bentley on that ship. Ernie Boch JR is the guy, owns a to. Of dealerships.

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Originally posted by JohnO:

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
A lot of Porsche enthusiasts waiting for the arrival of their 2021 purchases must be losing their minds right now.

I can attest to that ...

Meant to respond to this earlier, John. Sounds like you had a special order P-car on that transport. Sorry, assumin that’s the case, what is your dealer telling you?

The ship sunk this morning.

Felicity Ace Has Sunk

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Originally posted by TMats:
The ship sunk this morning.

Felicity Ace Has Sunk

That’s got to be great for the environment.

I love watching the technology evolve but I have been using lithium batteries for over 20 years and fire is still a real concern for me. I have seen what a run away battery can do to a house after catching fire on a workbench and I’m talking about batteries much smaller than one brick. I use what is called a battery bunker to charge and store my batteries which is obviously impossible with a car.

I won’t be an early adopter that’s for sure. I will need several years of fire free use before I get involved.

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The ship sunk this morning.

Rightwire???

That vessel and her contents were far greater liability than the salvage value. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to the how and why she sank when she did...

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Originally posted by mjlennon:
That vessel and her contents were far greater liability than the salvage value. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to the how and why she sank when she did...

Oh, that's easy. One car caught fire. Doesn't really matter which or how its fueled. It got so hot that it ignited another and another. Then each in turn caught the next few along the line. Pretty darn soon they had a real wienie roast going. So they let it burn for a few days, all the while weakening the steel of the hull. Soon it just got tired and the weak hull gave way, letting in the ocean.

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Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

The ship sunk this morning.

Rightwire???

I cannot confirm or deny <giggle> any involvement in that event.

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Originally posted by 1s1k:

That’s got to be great for the environment.

Atlantis is gathering their forces. I hope Aquaman can aquire the Trident in time.

Two years later, cause of fire and lawsuits coming out.

A Porsche EV Reportedly Started the Fire on the Ship Felicity, VW Now Facing a Lawsuit