I mean, the good news is that it has finally burned enough of the 4,000 cars in it that it’s finally dying down, but the fact of the matter is that a relatively recent cargo ship (2005 seems old until you learn the average age of a cargo ship is about 26. And the country with the newest fleet (Japan) averages around 9) that caught on fire for as-of-yet no explained reason.
Attempting to come up with an explanation with existing data is like trying to solve a puzzle when you only have the corner pieces. All the while having people shouting that you should use the piece they made from the packaging to fill it in. Of course, it was that a Taycan that decided that it wanted to emulate those Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s that it overheard the engineers at the Endem plant talking about. “Normal cars are shipped with just a little or no fuel”, these people will say, having guessed at this without any thought about sourcing, “but the batteries will always be there, ready to set themselves ablaze”.
Then next to them is another someone that says “That’s stupid, it would be impossible for them to explode, surely what happened was that incompetence of the crew, which fled the ship and left it to burn”. Be wary when speaking with this one, as the next sentence coming out of them is likely to begin with the phrase “If I had been there…”, even if the closest they have been to ever doing anything related to boats was trying to tip over a small plastic one in the bath as a kid.
Meanwhile, we sit here, watching the Lithium-Ion fires inside the Felicity Ace reignite and spread to hitherto innocent battery cells, all the while trying to remember when was the last time something like this happened (2019, about 4,200 cars, of which I would’ve gladly taken one if they had dumped it on me instead of crushing them). Owners of the vehicles that were already sold will be asked if they want a refund or another car in the same spec. An investigation will take place, case studies will be written, and insurance will pay (it’s just a matter of figuring out whose and to whom).
Still, there is something about watching so many cars go alight while completely surrounded by water. In my mind, this is less about the aforementioned Golden Ray incident, and more that time a Lamborghini Miura caught fire in the middle of London. Somewhere, in the middle of all that smoke, all matter of expensive and actually quite nice cars remain ablaze. In that sense, the hull is actually a privacy curtain, sparing us from the horrors. At least until we inevitably get the photos once the fire has been controlled.
Depending on the results of the upcoming investigation, we’ll either see a cautionary tale of a small fault on a ship going horribly wrong, or a cautionary tale on the dangers of modern batteries, no matter how well understood and perfected the technology is. In the meantime, perhaps we can switch boats and take a look at the Euroferry Olympia, which caught on fire this week, two days after inspection.
It seems we’re on rather a bad month for boats.
