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Car Carrier in Trouble in the Bering Sea

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Phil English:
NORTH PACIFIC 24 July - Twenty-three seafarers remain aboard the Singapore-flagged car carrier Cougar Ace as it continues to take on water and list heavily in the Bering Sea off the Aleutians. The US Coast Guard has told Fairplay that a C-130 aircraft arrived on scene at 1405 GMT and is overflying the distressed Mitsui OSK vessel while a distant USCG cutter and the bulker Ikan Juara rush to the area to assist. At present, only one crewmember has sustained injuries

Michael Martin:
Here is a website with a news story about the Cougar Ace written in July 2005 Mitsui-OSK Lines in house magazine Open Sea. I just wanted to give readers a feel for the size of her cargo...a capacity for 5214 vehicles! It's not hard to conceptuilize how a vessel like this can list very quickly if seawater starts flooding into the huge open car decks without the benefit of bulkhead subdivisions.

rd77:
according to the news article the vessel has a list of 80 degrees. If that is true she has basically already capsized. I'd hate to be aboard that vessel right now.


brgds.

barry:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Rescuers from the Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard late Monday saved 23 crew members from an Asian cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands.

``People are out of harm's way, they are rescued and they are safe,'' said Alaska National Guard spokesman Maj. Mike Haller.

All 23 crew members were hoisted into two National Guard Pave Hawk helicopters and a Coast Guard helicopter and taken to Adak Island in the Aleutians, 230 miles to the north of the Cougar Ace.

JoK:
I can't wait to see how they are going to get that ship upright.
Obviously they have some ballast issues that have affected the ships stability adversely.I would think if they decided to reballast to bring it upright then the ship will flop the opposite way and capsize for sure. Is it in an angle of loll I wonder...
It is amazing that it has stayed in this postion for so long.
I'm sure the naval architects and salvagers are wearing out more then a few pencils trying to get a salvage plan together. You wouldn't be able to tow the ship this way, I would think.
Very tricky indeed.

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