Cargo Ship Felicity Ace Sinks With Porsches, Audis, and Lamborghinis On Board
The ship reportedly went down in about 10,000 feet of water, so good luck with your salvage car dreams.
The Felicity Ace cargo ship that famously caught fire off the coast of Portugal on Feb. 16 has sunk. An update on the vessel's official information site confirmed the news Tuesday morning, explaining that it had "suffered a list to starboard." Salvage teams remain at the site as they continue to monitor the situation and look out for further incidents.
This statement, which was first reported on by Road & Track, comes roughly two weeks after the ship caught fire, torching nearly 4,000 cars inside. Most of those were built by Volkswagen Group brands like Audi, Bentley, Porsche, and Lamborghini. Salvage crews were finally able to board the Felicity Ace on Friday, Feb. 25, and were towing the boat to safety.
According to Tuesday morning's official statement, the boat was 220 nautical miles off the Azores region of Portugal when it went down in over 10,000 feet of water. There aren't many more details about the ship's sinking as of right now, and MOL Ship Management explains more info will be released as it becomes available. The sinking was also confirmed by the Portuguese Navy.
Automakers have scrambled since the ship caught fire to learn what was salvageable and what would need to be done to replace the lost cars. It's been reported that Lamborghini could restart Aventador production as some of the final examples of the V12 supercar were on board for the incident. Likewise, would-be owners of other high-end Bentleys and Porsches had been waiting on their cars for months and even over a year in some cases as supply chain issues delayed production.
There's no precise breakdown available for each affected model, though we know that 189 Bentleys, roughly 1,110 Porsches, and "dozens" of Lamborghinis were caught up in the smoke.
It's believed that the lithium-ion batteries of electric vehicles on the ship may have prolonged the fire and made it more difficult to extinguish for recovery crews.
This is a developing story.
