Cougar Ace: world's newest wreck dive?

[cal776]

The 654 foot Singapore-flagged cargo ship appears to be headed for the bottom, some two hundred miles off the coast of one of Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

The ship is listing almost 90 degrees.

Rescue efforts are underway, although four life rafts have been dropped beyond the reach of the crew. Let's hope that they make it out of this ordeal with life and limb.

Story here and here (with picture in distress).

Video footage of the foundering ship here.

The Cougar Ace has 4,813 brand new Asian cars on board. Assuming an average of $18,000 in value, that's more than $85 million worth of cargo. :11:

In all seriousness, given the probable water temperature and depth, I doubt that this is going to be a diveable wreck, but who knows?

 

[Jim Ernst]

wow!!!! thats amazing and sad, i hope that all of the crew will make it okay, though on the othere hand i am also concerned for the amount of fuel and oil that will be dumped into our ocean, i hope we dont end up with another alaskan disaster like the valdeez!!! though this ship is further out to sea, i would imagin it can still cause a disaster!!!:shakehead

 

[Wildcard]

The problem will be that the big ships run on bunker oil, a very thick oil that dosent break up and disperse. We are still cleaning up from the last cargo ship that broke up and ran ashore dumping bunker fuel and soybeans. That was two years ago.The good news is that it very cold water and this may make the oil thick enough that it dosnt leak out or will do so very slowly.
The crew has been rescued BTW.

 

[Jim Ernst]

The problem will be that the big ships run on bunker oil, a very thick oil that dosent break up and disperse. We are still cleaning up from the last cargo ship that broke up and ran ashore dumping bunker fuel and soybeans. That was two years ago.The good news is that it very cold water and this may make the oil thick enough that it dosnt leak out or will do so very slowly.
The crew has been rescued BTW.

thanks for the update,glad the crew is okay, now correct me if i am wrong , but i thought i read a part that said they already had a had an oil slick several kilometers long, and if so will it get worse and if or when the ship sinks wont the oil /fuel then be subseptible to leakage????????????????? i just could not stand to think of alaska getting hit again after the valdees, and i didnt even hear of the one you just mentioned!!

 

[cal776]

thats amazing and sad, i hope that all of the crew will make it okay, though on the othere hand i am also concerned for the amount of fuel and oil that will be dumped into our ocean, i hope we dont end up with another alaskan disaster like the valdeez!!!

The Exxon Valdez is an oil tanker that broke apart when it ran aground. Totally different from the Cougar Ace, a cargo ship that may go down relatively intact.

 

[Jim Ernst]

The Exxon Valdez is an oil tanker that broke apart when it ran aground. Totally different from the Cougar Ace, a cargo ship that may go down relatively intact.

awww..... yes i forgot that it(valdez) was an oil tanker, thats a big factor ,lol, ooopsss, thanks, well.... i hope all goes well on this one anyway

 

[Wildcard]

It's stil got a butt load of bunker and diesel but nothing like a tanker. I doubt that much will make it ashore anywhere. Depends on the winds and tides as to where it goes.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Most importantly - how deep is the water?

 

[Wildcard]

Deep, very very deep. My charts are all on the boat but it is thousands of feet deep.

 

[dive_lover88]

heard about that in the news...