Once had a woman watching a fireboat demonstration ask "what happens when they run out of water in their tanks?"
I had to explain that of course they head back to base to fill the tanks.
Car Carrying Ship on Fire
- Thread starter jerseyguy
- Start date
I had to explain that of course they head back to base to fill the tanks.
They do have the bare minimum to drive on/off the ship. Nobody likes gasoline aboard ship
Son of a Sailor
Super Anarchist
I'm guessing that there are at least a few of the cars that are electric with lithium batteries . . . that can't mix well with a fire either.
Steam Flyer
Sophisticated Yet Humble
My experience is that they actually drain the cars tanks and blow them with CO2 to reduce the fire hazard to a minimum.
Of course, that was back in the late 1980s. I'm sure they have lobbied to get rid of all these intrusive gov't regulation which only hurts jobs.
- DSK
Rum Runner
Rum Runner
I think I'll change my color pick for the new 911 to Burnt Orange.
Ventucky Red
Super Anarchist
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Steam Flyer
Sophisticated Yet Humble
Ventucky Red
Super Anarchist
- 11,946
- 1,500
Putting out the fire on the Felicity Ace won't be easy. Maritime regulations require automotive shippers to drain the fuel tanks of vehicles in transit, but U.S. law allows 17 ounces (500 mL) of fuel to remain in each car, including anything in the combustion chamber, fuel lines, and tank. That reduces the risk of fuel catching fire, but when there's another ignition source—like the time a recalled Ford's wiring shorted out in transit—the tightly-packed cars offer lots of flammable material if a sufficiently hot fire develops.
This kind of precaution has no equivalent in EVs. And as The Verge reports, the roughly 4000 cars onboard include an unknown number of Audi E-Tron Sportback electric utility vehicles. The reality is worse now that we know EVs are on board the Felicity Ace, as Reuters explains:
"The ship is burning from one end to the other... everything is on fire about five metres above the water line," Cabecas said.
Around 1,100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys were on board, spokespeople for the car brands owned by Volkswagen said.
This kind of precaution has no equivalent in EVs. And as The Verge reports, the roughly 4000 cars onboard include an unknown number of Audi E-Tron Sportback electric utility vehicles. The reality is worse now that we know EVs are on board the Felicity Ace, as Reuters explains:
"The ship is burning from one end to the other... everything is on fire about five metres above the water line," Cabecas said.
Around 1,100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys were on board, spokespeople for the car brands owned by Volkswagen said.
Like they (used to?) do in aircraft carrier fuel lines during action after the loss of USS Lexington. That would make sense, but it looks like they don't.
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See Level
Working to overcome my inner peace
There's no chance they drain the fuel or disconnect the batteries, that would add days in port to get them going again for offload.
Well, they seem to drive them on board and drive them off at the other end lickety-split, and there aren't any gas stations handy in ports that I've seen, so there has to be fuel in there some place. Possibly 500ml would do the trick to get them off, into the storage yard and onto a car carrier.
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El Borracho
Barkeeper’s Friend
We may have an emotional connection to the lost automobiles and ship. But for the various corporations this only a financial and probability calculation. Certainly their biggest fear is some authority creating more regulation, not the fire.
El Borracho
Barkeeper’s Friend
Is that an insult? It is not drinking all day unless you start in the morning, dummy.
See Level
Working to overcome my inner peace
Yeah, I'd say all the cars onboard are toast.
https://gcaptain.com/felicity-ace-car-carrier-continues-to-burn-in-mid-atlantic/
Photo courtesy Portuguese Navy
https://gcaptain.com/felicity-ace-car-carrier-continues-to-burn-in-mid-atlantic/
Photo courtesy Portuguese Navy
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Ventucky Red
Super Anarchist
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Thanks, this is what I was hoping for... but now learning there were some EV cars on board, without a SCBA, yeah I too may have opted for a lifeboat over-breathing in some of those fumes.
NaClH20
Semper ubi sub ubi
Used to dock in Portland, OR next to the car carrier terminal some years ago. It was indeed entertaining to watch the discharge…. There would be a string of cars coming down the ramp doing about 50 mph off the ship. They’d blast into a parking spot, slam the brakes, door would pop open and the guys would RUN to a bus, which would bring them back to the ship. There would then be a slight pause followed by another blast of cars coming out. Was impressive, as otherwise the Portland longshoreman’s union has my everlasting contempt for employing the most overpaid, laziest and useless individuals I have ever met.
Sailed with a guy who used to work on one… said it wasn’t much fun as there was never any port time to see the places they were. Went to London once, but the dock, discharge, and undocking took the entirety of one four hour watch.
(also, he was an engineer…. On those things the accommodations are all the way up and at the fwd end of the boat. Engines are all the way down near the back. Engine rooms are unmanned at night, but alarms go to whoever is the duty engineer for the day. They would have, I think, about two minutes to acknowledge the alarm in the engine room before it would set off the general alarm and wake up the whole boat. They wouldn’t know specifically which alarm it was, so in case it was a generator alarm, they couldn’t risk taking the elevator and getting stuck. So, he had more than one night were he’d be running down 12 decks of stairs in his skivvies to mash the button. Fun!)
Sailed with a guy who used to work on one… said it wasn’t much fun as there was never any port time to see the places they were. Went to London once, but the dock, discharge, and undocking took the entirety of one four hour watch.
(also, he was an engineer…. On those things the accommodations are all the way up and at the fwd end of the boat. Engines are all the way down near the back. Engine rooms are unmanned at night, but alarms go to whoever is the duty engineer for the day. They would have, I think, about two minutes to acknowledge the alarm in the engine room before it would set off the general alarm and wake up the whole boat. They wouldn’t know specifically which alarm it was, so in case it was a generator alarm, they couldn’t risk taking the elevator and getting stuck. So, he had more than one night were he’d be running down 12 decks of stairs in his skivvies to mash the button. Fun!)
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Steam Flyer
Sophisticated Yet Humble
Nah, just a couple of hours. Seriously.
I did engineering work on ships in Jax Fla when I first got out of the Navy, the big Toyota-Toter Ro-Ros were a large percentage of the business. They hired every derelict in town with a drivers license, and a some slightly-better-than-derelict guys to go thru the decks with a jerry-can-cart putting a gallon of gas in each car and driving it off. It did add time but my understanding is that US law would not allow them to land in a US port without complying with these regs. I don't know specifically about -those- regs but I do know that they had a book of regs about ship's engines and engineering spaces, they were pretty strictly enforced.
I also know that the shipping companies lobbied HEAVILY to get those regs eliminated. Same way the power companies lobbied to get rid of air pollution laws.
It's a see-saw battle.
- DSK
Jkdubz808
Megatron
They are saying the lithium-ion batteries could have been the cause, and it probably was. The new types of batteries could pose an issue to an industry that is usually 15 years behind the times.
She is still burning, salvage team on their way tow it somewhere. This will definitely create some changes in the industry hopefully.
