Coast Guard rushing to assist listing cargo ship off Alaska

AP via KXLY ^ | 7/24/2006 | AP

[Incorrigible]

Coast Guard rushing to assist listing cargo ship off Alaska
KXLY.com Staff and Wire Reports
Last updated: Monday, July 24th, 2006 02:32:33 PM

 

www.ShipPhotos.co.uk Singapore based container ship Cougar Ace, a car carrier with 22 people on board is currently located about 230 miles south of the Aleutian Island Chain in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.

 

Related Links:

• US Coast Guard District 17
 

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA -- The Coast Guard is heading out to help a container ship that's taking on water and listing off the coast of Alaska.

Twenty-two people are aboard the ship, which sent out an SOS late Sunday night. It's now tilted at about an 80-degree angle to the water, with a Coast Guard official describing it as basically on its side.

A Coast Guard C-130 transport plane based out of Kodiak, Alaska has dropped a liferaft near the ship as a precaution in case the ship starts sinking and is orbiting the ship and in radio contact with the Cougar Ace's crew.

Two merchant ships are nearby ready to assist while the Coast Guard Cutter Rush based out of Hawaii is en-route to assist and should be on the scene by Tuesday.

Only one injury is reported -- a crew member with a broken leg. There also appears to be an oil leak, though how bad it is remains to be seen.

The ship is listed as the Cougar Ace, a 654-foot car carrier owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. The ship, homeported in Singapore, was en-route to Vancouver, BC. Following the stop in Vancouver the ship was scheduled to arrive Sunday at the Port of Tacoma. Spokesman Mike Wasem says it was scheduled to unload cars at the port's Blair Waterway dock.

The Cougar Ace left Japan with 4,813 vehicles onboard on July 22nd.

 

The Associated Press and the US Coast Guard contributed to this report

[Incorrigible]

Well, at least our balance of trade will improve!

;-)

[balch3]

those car and container ships look awfully top heavy to me.

[finnman69]

at least there will be a nice new reef for he fishies

[kingu]

80 degree list? Yeah, that's basically on it's side. Amazing that the ship is still floating at that point, and not taking on water and sinking to the bottom immediately.

[finnman69]

Big, but not as big as the QM2 I was visiting today.

[Incorrigible]

[billhilly]

Could it be that the deadliest catch is a Toyota?

[Investment Biker]

Wow! If those cars are worth a little over $20,000 each then this ship is holding approximately $100 million in cargo. Some poor insurance company is listing also.

[balch3]

I read that years ago a ship loaded with Nikes went down in the North Pacific, and for years afterwards, the shoes would wash up on beaches. Oceanographers were able to learn a lot about ocean currents by charting where they turned up.

[CrazyIvan]

Read that also. I think this is one that's not an urban legand.

[CPOSharky]

80 degree list? Yeah, that's basically on it's side. Amazing that the ship is still floating at that point, and not taking on water and sinking to the bottom immediately.

It's called water tight integrity. As long as the water tight doors and hatches hold, it could float like that a long time.

[Gator101]

those car and container ships look awfully top heavy to me.

Me too. Also, ferry ships are prone to free surface effect due to their large car decks that would allow any water that is taken on to slosh around and make the ship even more unstable. This thing is probably like a ferry times-10.

[DustyMoment]

It's now tilted at about an 80-degree angle to the water, with a Coast Guard official describing it as basically on its side.

Yeah. it doesn't sound like it's going to make port. Prayers for the crew. Those are cold waters up there and hypothermia and death set in quickly if they end up in the drink.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

those car and container ships look awfully top heavy to me.

It's called the center of gravity.

As long as it's far enough down, there ain't no problem.

Cars actually don't weigh that much considering.

[razorback-bert]

COUGAR ACE UPDATE AND CORRECTION

JUNEAU, Alaska - The Singapore flagged vessel Cougar Ace remains disabled and listing at 90 degrees 230 miles south of the Aleutian Islands.

After deploying several life rafts to the Cougar Ace, the Coast Guard C-130 on scene has returned to Kodiak for fuel.

A Coast Guard rescue helicopter from Air Station Kodiak has been deployed to the scene.

The Alaska Air National Guard have deployed two Pavehawk helicopters accompanied by a
C-130, and two HC-130 aircraft with in-flight refueling capabilities, all carrying parachute deployable rescue teams, from Kulis Air National Guard Base to assist in the rescue operation.

The merchant vessel Ikan Juara remains on scene.

The cause the vessel damage is unknown at this time.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

Yeah, the insurance carrier probably ain't too happy.

My guess is the USCGC Rush might be able to haul her into Anchorage before it's too late.

Though the scary part is that if she's listing it would be a big problem if she capsized and blocked the Cook Inlet.