Did you know?

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Somewhere beneath the Atlantic, nearly two miles down on the ocean floor, sits a graveyard unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Over 1,100 Porsches. 846 Audis. 190 Bentleys. 85 Lamborghinis. Hundreds of Volkswagens. Nearly four thousand vehicles in total — all brand new, many never driven a single mile — resting in the cold darkness of the deep sea.
This is the final resting place of the Felicity Ace.
On February 10, 2022, the massive roll-on/roll-off cargo ship set sail from Emden, Germany, bound for Davisville, Rhode Island, carrying 3,965 vehicles from the Volkswagen Group. Among them were some of the most coveted cars on Earth — including fifteen Lamborghini Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae models, each worth over half a million dollars. The Ultimae was the final edition of the legendary Aventador. Production had already ended. These fifteen were among the last ever built.
Six days into the voyage, roughly two hundred miles from the Azores Islands in the mid-Atlantic, a fire erupted in the cargo hold.
The Portuguese Navy and Air Force launched an immediate rescue operation, evacuating all twenty-two crew members by helicopter to the island of Faial. Every soul on board survived. But the ship itself was beyond saving.
The fire burned for nearly two weeks. Lithium-ion batteries in the electric vehicles onboard — models like the Volkswagen ID.4 and Audi e-tron — are believed to have made the blaze nearly impossible to control. Specialized salvage teams from Smit Salvage eventually boarded and extinguished the flames, but the damage was catastrophic. The entire 656-foot vessel was gutted from bow to stern.
On March 1, 2022, as tug boats attempted to tow the charred hull to safety, the Felicity Ace developed a forty-five-degree starboard list in rough seas. Water poured in. The ship capsized and sank approximately 220 nautical miles off the Azores, settling nearly 10,000 feet below the surface.
It took everything with it.
Analysts estimated the cargo loss between $334 million and $401 million. Among the wreckage were those fifteen irreplaceable Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae models. Lamborghini would later restart production just to rebuild them — including one final car designed as an homage to the legendary Miura P400.
There were also individual stories caught in the disaster. One man in Austin, Texas, had been tracking his brand-new electric Porsche Taycan through Porsche's "Track Your Dream" app — watching it get built in Stuttgart, shipped to Emden, and loaded onto the Felicity Ace. He followed the ship's progress across the Atlantic on an online forum until a message appeared that stopped his heart: "Felicity Ace ship on fire in the Atlantic carrying Porsches."
His car now sits at the bottom of the ocean.
The sinking raised urgent questions that the maritime industry is still grappling with. How do you fight a lithium-ion battery fire at sea? What regulations need to change as electric vehicles become a larger share of global shipping? What happens to the 2,000 metric tons of fuel and 2,000 metric tons of oil that went down with the hull?
By 2024, Volkswagen still faced lawsuits from the ship's owners and insurers, alleging that an electric vehicle battery triggered the fire that destroyed everything.
The Felicity Ace now sits in the silent darkness of the deep Atlantic — a $400 million tomb of steel and luxury, slowly being claimed by the sea. No salvage operation has been attempted. At nearly two miles deep, none likely ever will.
Almost four thousand cars that were supposed to be in American driveways are instead resting on the ocean floor, untouched, unseen, and unreachable — a monument to one of the most extraordinary shipping disasters in modern history.
 
Doc said:
View attachment 85434

Somewhere beneath the Atlantic, nearly two miles down on the ocean floor, sits a graveyard unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Over 1,100 Porsches. 846 Audis. 190 Bentleys. 85 Lamborghinis. Hundreds of Volkswagens. Nearly four thousand vehicles in total — all brand new, many never driven a single mile — resting in the cold darkness of the deep sea.
This is the final resting place of the Felicity Ace.
On February 10, 2022, the massive roll-on/roll-off cargo ship set sail from Emden, Germany, bound for Davisville, Rhode Island, carrying 3,965 vehicles from the Volkswagen Group. Among them were some of the most coveted cars on Earth — including fifteen Lamborghini Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae models, each worth over half a million dollars. The Ultimae was the final edition of the legendary Aventador. Production had already ended. These fifteen were among the last ever built.
Six days into the voyage, roughly two hundred miles from the Azores Islands in the mid-Atlantic, a fire erupted in the cargo hold.
The Portuguese Navy and Air Force launched an immediate rescue operation, evacuating all twenty-two crew members by helicopter to the island of Faial. Every soul on board survived. But the ship itself was beyond saving.
The fire burned for nearly two weeks. Lithium-ion batteries in the electric vehicles onboard — models like the Volkswagen ID.4 and Audi e-tron — are believed to have made the blaze nearly impossible to control. Specialized salvage teams from Smit Salvage eventually boarded and extinguished the flames, but the damage was catastrophic. The entire 656-foot vessel was gutted from bow to stern.
On March 1, 2022, as tug boats attempted to tow the charred hull to safety, the Felicity Ace developed a forty-five-degree starboard list in rough seas. Water poured in. The ship capsized and sank approximately 220 nautical miles off the Azores, settling nearly 10,000 feet below the surface.
It took everything with it.
Analysts estimated the cargo loss between $334 million and $401 million. Among the wreckage were those fifteen irreplaceable Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae models. Lamborghini would later restart production just to rebuild them — including one final car designed as an homage to the legendary Miura P400.
There were also individual stories caught in the disaster. One man in Austin, Texas, had been tracking his brand-new electric Porsche Taycan through Porsche's "Track Your Dream" app — watching it get built in Stuttgart, shipped to Emden, and loaded onto the Felicity Ace. He followed the ship's progress across the Atlantic on an online forum until a message appeared that stopped his heart: "Felicity Ace ship on fire in the Atlantic carrying Porsches."
His car now sits at the bottom of the ocean.
The sinking raised urgent questions that the maritime industry is still grappling with. How do you fight a lithium-ion battery fire at sea? What regulations need to change as electric vehicles become a larger share of global shipping? What happens to the 2,000 metric tons of fuel and 2,000 metric tons of oil that went down with the hull?
By 2024, Volkswagen still faced lawsuits from the ship's owners and insurers, alleging that an electric vehicle battery triggered the fire that destroyed everything.
The Felicity Ace now sits in the silent darkness of the deep Atlantic — a $400 million tomb of steel and luxury, slowly being claimed by the sea. No salvage operation has been attempted. At nearly two miles deep, none likely ever will.
Almost four thousand cars that were supposed to be in American driveways are instead resting on the ocean floor, untouched, unseen, and unreachable — a monument to one of the most extraordinary shipping disasters in modern history.
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Wowwwwwwwwwwww! How is it that I've not heard of this disaster???

Lee
 
TexasGem said:
@QSis , I would like to know the story behind your avatar picture 😃
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Not much of a story, TG. I love grey tabby cats - they are the only cats I've owned, except for one orange tabby. It's not my cat, but I thought the photo was funny. That's it, LOL!

I think I've had that avatar since I joined NCT 17 or so years ago. Not sure about that - at some point on some forum, I had a Red Sox logo as my avatar.

Lee
 
QSis said:
Not much of a story, TG. I love grey tabby cats - they are the only cats I've owned, except for one orange tabby. It's not my cat, but I thought the photo was funny. That's it, LOL!

I think I've had that avatar since I joined NCT 17 or so years ago. Not sure about that - at some point on some forum, I had a Red Sox logo as my avatar.

Lee
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I love kitties, had to ask😻
 
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