Two weeks after catching fire, Felicity Ace sank on March 1, about 253 miles off the Azores, according to the company that managed the vessel.
Felicity Ace went down after tilting starboard, plunging about 4,000 cars into the sea, according to MOL Ship Management.
The fire broke out in the ship’s cargo hold six days after it left from Emden, Germany, for the port of Davisville in Rhode Island. MOL Ship Management has not said how or why the fire started.
Nearby commercial ships and a helicopter rescued the ship’s 22 crew members and no one was injured during the evacuation. However, the Felicity Ace remained aflame and billowed smoke, adrift off the shore of Western Europe.
There were several efforts to extinguish the fire and assess the damage to the vessel, but photos shared by the Portuguese Navy showed the vessel consumed by white smoke.
In addition, the Portuguese Navy said last week that a team of experts had arrived by helicopter, with MOL Ship Management noting that a large salvage tugboat had started towing the Felicity Ace to “a safe area” off the Azores.
The Portuguese Navy added that “a small patch of oily residue” was visible and was being dispersed by the water jets of the tugboats. The area is being monitored by Portuguese and European environmental officials.
