Porsche Avoids Financial Responsibility Over (Potential) EV Fire

MV Felicity Ace was a car carrier. It was carrying a number of EVs. A fire started, and eventually the boat sank. Porsche was sued for being responsible. From gCaptain: Porsche Wins Felicity Ace Lawsuit as Cause of Fire Remains Unproven

According to German legal news outlet LTO (Legal Tribune Online), the Regional Court of Stuttgart dismissed a lawsuit seeking approximately €30 million ($34 million) in damages from Porsche. The plaintiffs, which included the Japanese owner of the vessel and five marine hull insurers, alleged that a self-igniting lithium-ion battery in a Porsche Taycan sparked the February 2022 fire aboard the vessel.

In the mode of the old tobacco companies, "you can prove it," held up in court. And to be fair, you couldn't prove that the lithium-ion battery started the fire. Once those batteries were involved, it became impossible to put the fire out. (See the video for the explanation of why that is.)

Here is a bit of history from gCaptain on when the fire started.

The fire on the Panama-flagged ship started Wednesday, February 16, approximately 90 nautical miles southwest of the Azores as the ship was underway from Embden, Germany, where Volkswagen AG has a manufacturing plant, to the U.S. East Coast.

This is Sal Mercogliano's What's Going on With Shipping? video The Felicity Ace Legal Battle: Court Rules on Porsche Battery Fire Claims

For more on the MV Felicity Ace fire, see the post at this link.

Gas Explosion at the Panama Canal

There was an explosion at a gas facility on the shore of the Panama Canal. It was apparently either a liquefied natural gas facility, or a propane facility. The Bridge of the Americas may be closed, but the canal itself is open.

This is the What's Going on With Shipping? video Explosion at the Panama Canal | Shoreside Gas Tankers Explode & Threaten the Bridge of the Americas

Sal Mercogliano is doing a fine job of keeping us updated on everything going on in the world of shipping. He has a number of videos on the state of the Strait of Hormuz.

Company Serving Hawaii Will No Longer Ship Electric Vehicles

While this mostly concerns Hawaii, it will probably become more of an issue over time. Electric vehicles will be harder to access in Hawaii

Effective today [July 14th], Matson won’t take a booking to ship electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. They say it’s “due to increasing concern for the safety of transporting vehicles powered by large lithium-ion batteries.”

This is from a carrier that moves about 30,000 vehicles to and from Hawaiʻi every year, a growing number of EVs and hybrids.

This comes after the vessel Morning Midas sank at the end of June, after having a fire break out on its electric vehicle deck about 3 weeks earlier.

There are still ways to get electric vehicles to and from Hawaii, but if other shippers decide the risks are too high, Hawaii may be in a pinch if they have followed California's lead and mandated all electric vehicles. Or they will have to buy Chinese vehicles, though it isn't clear to me if those vehicles meet US safety standards for crash worthiness.

The hat tip goes to MGUY Australia and his video EV Quickie: ANOTHER shipping company BANS electric vehicles. The video is 3 minutes, but really just covers the info in the article linked above.

The Environmental Impact of Electric Vehicles

So if an electric vehicle catches fire, sets other vehicles, electric and gas, on fire, is it still "zero emissions?" Burned-Out Car Carrier Sinks in Pacific Three Weeks After Fire Began

MV Morning Midas a car carrier en route from China to Mexico caught fire 3 weeks ago. It contained 3,000 vehicles, of which about 800 were EVs. It sank in approximately 5,000 meters of water, about 360 nautical miles southwest of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

And then there is the vessel that sank.

As a precaution, two salvage tugs containing pollution control equipment remain on site to monitor for any signs of pollution or debris. A specialized pollution response vessel is also en route to the location as an additional precaution. The vessel also reportedly had 350 metric tons of marine gas oil (MGO) and 1,530 metric tons of very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) onboard.

But hey, go ahead and pretend that they are good the environment.

The hat tip goes to MGUY Australia and his video Car carrier Morning Midas SINKS after probable EV fire

MV Celebrity Edge: A Maritime Mishap

Though it was more in the nature of a near miss, than a catastrophe.

Some time ago, when one of the maritime disasters was in the news, someone asked how often stuff goes wrong around boats. The answer is, "All the time." So much so, that unless a mishap impacts global trade, like the ship that was blocking the Suez Canal a few years back, or the ship that knocked down a bridge in Baltimore, you don't hear about it.

This story may make an impact on the news for a couple of reasons:

1. It involved cruise ships.
2. There is video.

I don't know if this has been plastered all over the news or not. I suspect not, just based on everything else going on, but I am fairly well insulated from the general 24 hour news insanity.

From Cruise Hive: Celebrity Edge Breaks Loose in Alaska Port Due to Sudden Wind Squall. This could have been a collision between 2 cruise ships, but the other ship, that was in danger from this, managed to maneuver out of the way.

On the afternoon of June 16, 2025, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge broke free from her mooring lines – likely as a result of inclement weather. Video taken by witnesses shows heavy rain and wind.

MV Celebrity Edge is the lead ship in the Edge Class at Celebrity Cruise Lines. It has a length overall of 306 meters, a beam of 39 meters, a draft of 8.4 meters, and 15 decks. There are 4 Wärtsilä marine engines installed powering 2 azimuth thruster pods, and 4 side thrusters. It was laid down in 2016 and launched in 2018, for a cost of $1 billion.

If you only want to see the video showing the lines parting, this article at The Weather Channel has a short 30 second video. All it really shows are the lines parting and the ship away from the dock. (The video will autoplay the next story in line, so that is something to be aware of.)

This is Sal Mercagliano's video from What's Going on With Shipping? MV Celebrity Edge Breaks Loose from Its Moorings in the Port of Juneau, Alaska | June 16, 2025. The video is 20 minutes, but is comprehensive. Sal Mercagliano makes use of vessel tracking to show the other ships in the area, and how one of them managed to get out of the way, avoiding a collision.

Ship Happens

The incident where the Mexican tall ship allided with a bridge in NYC, sparked several discussions, on the subject of, "How often does this happen?" One of those discussions was in the comments of my post on that incident.

Well, that kind of thing happens a lot, and Sal Mercogliano has decided, with the help of his subscribers (who send him stories), to share some of the funnier ones with us. I'm sure the people experiencing these things don't think they are funny, but no one died, unless North Korea has decided to execute someone. A couple people are probably going to have to update their résumés and seek new employment. (Don't expect a recommendation after doing that much damage!)

It was the thumbnail image that caught my attention. Well, I subscribe to What's Going on With Shipping?, but the image is striking. Pun intended. The ship went aground at 16 knots, in clear weather, so they will have some issues freeing it. And the crew will have to answer some pointed questions.

This is Sal Mercogliano's video, from his What's Going on With Shipping? YouTube channel, Ship Happens | Containership Almost Hits a House | Ship Launch | River Pilots | Ship Adrift

• The North Koreans managed to destroy one of their own destroyers at launch.
• A "young" river pilot, in training, was on his cellphone and crashed a 15 barge tow into a dike on the Ohio River, doing $13 million in damages.
• Another river pilot on the Mississippi River took a bathroom break, stepped away from the helm, crashed his tow, doing $20 million in damages.
• And then there is the Motor Vessel NCL Salten.

The video is 23 minutes.

And yes, "allided" is a word, one you don't see outside of a nautical context, but still the correct word. (See the link at the top.)

A Near-Miss in Shipping

The Motor Vessel Tindle was coming into Port Tampa Bay when it lost power.

The Tindle is roughly 1000 feet long, carrying just under 100 thousand tons of cargo. The Tindle is 10 years old, carries 8,600 TEUs. TEU stands for 20-foot equivalent. It is a measure of containers. Most containers you see everyday are being towed by Semi-tractors, on a trailer chassis. Those are typically 40 feet long, so 2 TEUs. (That is sort of mid-sized by today's standards. It isn't even a Neo-Panamax size, though it is large to the Port of Tampa.)

People, who know nothing about shipping see a story like this and think "sabotage," or "conspiracy," or something. The truth is, that humanity is moving a tremendous amount of cargo. Or why do you think the rebuilt the Panama canal? Hint: not because it was a truth or dare. We are moving all of that cargo, and yet we are not perfect.

This is the What is Going on With Shipping? video Containership Loses Power Entering Tampa Bay | Pilot Utilized Tugs to Stop the Ship. Sal Mercogliano covers a bit of the conspiracy nuts take on all of this. He calls the increase in cargo activity, Volume and Velocity.

Now ships lose propulsion all the time. People don't understand, but it does happen, but when it happens during a maneuver like Tindle coming into the dock in Tampa that is critical, ... that is the moment when you don't need to what's called drop the plant, because now all of a sudden you've lost propulsion.