A Cargo Ship Full Of Luxury Cars Finally Sank After A Days-Long Fire At Sea
For the first time ever, it sucks to be a Porsche owner 😬
Up to 4,000 luxury cars are now parked on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, after sinking in a fire-ravaged cargo ship near Portugal on Tuesday.
The ruined ship, called the Felicity Ace, sank after burning at sea for several days, taking its cargo of Porsches, Lamborghinis, Audis and Bentleys down with it.
The ship was on its way from Europe to North America when it caught fire on February 16. The Portuguese navy rescued everyone onboard, but there was no saving the cars from the fire.
The Portuguese navy confirmed in a statement that on March 1, the ship sank after a 13-day effort to save it. The navy also shared photos of the ruined ship before it went down.
You can't see the cars, but you can definitely see the damage.
The ship was carrying an estimated $438 million worth of cars, experts at the insurance company Russell Group Ltd. told the Wall Street Journal. And that doesn't include the lost cost of the ship itself.
"Large parts of the nearly 4,000 vehicles from several group brands were so damaged in the ship fire that they can no longer be delivered," Volkswagen said in a statement to the WSJ.
The vehicles had already been sold and the race is on now to find replacements for those who lost their deliveries.
It's unclear how the fire started but salvage teams put it out with tugboats, then tried to tow it to shore before before it sank about 400 km off the coast of Portugal's Azores Islands, reported ABC News.
The 22 crew members on board were safely evacuated from the burning ship, officials previously said. The Portuguese navy posted a video of the rescue mission to their YouTube showing them evacuating the crew via helicopter.
The ship went down with an estimated 2,000 metric tons of fuel and 2,000 metric tons of oil, The Guardian reports. There are now concerns about the water pollution that it will cause.
It's unclear exactly how many cars were being carried on the ship, but the Felicity Ace could transport 4,000 vehicles.