First Cost Estimates Made For Ship Carrying More Than A Thousand Porsches On Fire

More than 1,000 Porsches are stuck on an abandoned, blazing cargo ship in the Atlantic Ocean. If they're not recovered, the financial losses could be eye-watering.

The Felicity Ace was en route from Germany to a port in Rhode Island on Wednesday, February 16, when it was forced to issue distress signals after a fire emerged in one of its cargo decks. Soon, the entire 22-strong crew were evacuated, and thankfully nobody was injured.

However, while there's been no loss of human life as a result of the incident, millions of dollars worth of cars are currently at risk, drifting out there on open water while the owner of the vessel devises a rescue plan.

There's a total of 3,965 Volkswagen Group vehicles on board, with around a quarter of them said to be Porsches, as per Bloomberg. One of them is believed to be a Porsche 718 Spyder belonging to YouTube star Matt Farah. 'I just got the call from my dealer. My car is now adrift, possibly on fire, in the middle of the ocean,' he said.

Porsche itself estimated 1,100 of its vehicles to be on the ship, in addition to 189 Bentleys and an unspecified number of Audis and Volkswagens.

But just how much is at stake if all the cars were to burn to a crisp and never be recovered? According to software company Skytek, the total market value of the Felicity Ace is somewhere around $24.5 million — however, the vehicles themselves are valued at closer to $500 million overall, as per Car and Driver.

It's still 'too early to speculate on the cause of the incident', Porsche said, but firefighting crews preparing to tackle the blaze are prepared for difficulties as a result of the number of EV batteries believed to be on board. It's also unclear where the ship will end up, with the vessel being too large for the port of Horta.

'Our immediate thoughts are of relief that the 22 crew of the merchant ship Felicity Ace are safe and well. A number of our cars are among the cargo. We are in contact with the shipping company and the details of the cars on board are now known,' a Porsche spokesperson said.

'Customers affected by the incident are being contacted by their dealer. While it remains too early to confirm what occurred and next steps, we are — along with our colleagues at Porsche AG — supporting our customers and our dealers as best we can to find solutions.

'Anyone concerned by this incident and the implications on the car they've ordered should maintain in contact with [the] dealer with which their order was placed.'

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