A burnt-out cargo ship carrying thousands of luxury cars, including Porsches and Bentleys, sank on Tuesday off the Portuguese Azores archipelago.
The ship, Felicity Ace sank after it had caught fire two weeks back, a port official said.
Joao Mendes Cabecas, the captain of the nearest port on the island of Faial, told Reuters the Panama-flagged Felicity Ace had sunk as efforts to tow it began due to structural problems caused by the fire and rough seas.
“When the towing started… water started to come in,” he said. “The ship lost its stability and sank.”
The fire on the ship that was carrying around 4,000 vehicles made by Volkswagen Group from Germany to the United States, broke out on Feb. 16. The 22 crew members were evacuated on the same day.
The ship had set sail from Emden, Germany, where Volkswagen has a factory, and was travelling to Davisville, in the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
Cabecas said no oil leak had been reported so far but there were fears the fuel tanks could be damaged as the vessel lay at the bottom of the Atlantic at a depth of around 3,500 metres (2.17 miles).
Volkswagen said last week that the damage to the vehicles was covered by insurance, while confirming that the ship has sunk. Insurance experts said the incident could result in losses of $155 million.
