Felicity Ace, the mammoth car carrier which was transporting 4,000 vehicles, including expensive Porsches and Bentleys, and caught fire last month, finally sank on Tuesday raising grave concern about the environmental damage it will cause.
The ship which was being towed away, according to the Portuguese Navy “lost stability and sank”.
44,000 luxury cars were burned to the ground.
In the northeastern part of the Atlantic Ocean, the Felicity Ace cargo ship, bound for the United States with almost 4,000 luxury cars, caught fire.
The German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that 3,965 Porsche and other Volkswagen pic.twitter.com/pJzP1eWtix— ch' meg (@HowertnB) February 19, 2022
The vessel 650-feet-long went down 253 miles off the coast of the Azores at 9 a.m. local time after tilting starboard, taking down with it 4,000 cars, including more than 1,000 Porsches and 200 Bentleys, informed MOL Ship Management company.
Environmental conservation groups have raised the red flag about the pollution it would cause in the unique ecosystem of the Azores – a Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic – which boasts of coral reefs, coral forests and sponges on the vast seafloor.
Besides, the region is home to sperm whales, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins and sharks, among other species. The vessel’s three million litres of heavy fuel, as well as oil, and electrical wires, paint and plastics could have a drastic effect on the ecosystem.
Fire broke out after the sixth day after the carrier departed from Emden, Germany, for the port of Davisville in Rhode Island. Crew numbering 22 were rescued by commercial ships close by and a helicopter while no one was injured.
Also read: Burning ship carrying 4,000 Volkswagen cars adrift in Atlantic as crew is evacuated
