A burning container ship carrying close to 4,000 cars, including 1,100 Porsches, has been drifting in the mid-Atlantic after the huge vessel’s 22 crew members were evacuated, the Portuguese navy has said.
The ship, which was carrying a number of Volkswagen Group vehicles from Germany to the US, caught fire near the Azores on Wednesday evening, a VW spokesperson said on Friday.
None of the crew members evacuated on Wednesday were hurt, Portugal’s navy said.
The ship, Felicity Ace, was travelling from Emden,where Volkswagen has a factory, to Davisville, Rhode Island, according to the website Marine Traffic.
An internal email from Volkswagen's U.S. operations revealed there were 3,965 Volkswagen AG vehicles aboard the ship. Headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany, the group manufactures its Volkswagen brand, as well as Porsche, Audi, and Lamborghini- all of which were in tow when the vessel caught fire, the email said.
Over 100 of those cars were headed for Port of Houston in Texas, with GTI, Golf R, and ID.4 models deemed to be at risk, according to the email.
A picture shared by the Portuguese maritime authority on its website on Wednesday showed clouds of smoke billowing from ship.
The fire is active but under control, the captain of the port of Horta on the Azorean island of Faial told the Portuguese news agency Lusa on Thursday night.
