At about 9 a.m. this morning, the car carrier the Felicity Ace sank near Azores almost two weeks after a fire broke out on the ship.
The carrier was holding around 4,000 cars from the Volkswagen Group, including Volkswagens, Audis, Lamborghinis and Porsches. According to risk consultancy Russell Group, the total value of the vehicles on board was estimated at over $400 million. An additional $38 million was valued for other goods.
Salvage crews were attempting to tow the ship to safety. The crews were battling bad weather, which made the tow a challenge. A press release from the ship’s operator, MOL Ship Management, revealed that the Felicity Ace “suffered a list to the starboard.”
Pat Adamson, a spokesperson for MOL, told Bloomberg the company was not expecting the ship to sink.
“The weather was pretty rough out there,” Adamson said. “And then she sank, which was a surprise.”
Previously, the vessel’s owners released an update on Friday saying the ship was stable and salvage crews were boarding the ship.
The Felicity Ace was traveling from Emden, Germany to Davisville, Rhode Island when it caught fire on February 16. The fire lasted for several days, and on February 25 the flames died down.
All 22 crew members aboard the ship were safely evacuated when the fire broke out.
The official cause of the fire is still unknown, but reports are saying that electric batteries on some of the cars aboard caused complications with the fire.
