cougar ace

[acruxksa]

This ship was in the news about a month ago. They are still working on righting the ship and saving some of the 5,000 Nissans she is carrying. I got these pictures about a week ago when we were out in Dutch Harbor, AK

[Gizmokid2005]

Well...that just sucks...I didn't hear bout it in the news, what happened?

[acruxksa]

She was on her way across the Pacific Ocean when one of the Officers accidentally pumped out too much ballast. Whoops. Everyone made it off with only minor injuries, but apparently a Naval Architect died when he fell from the top down the deck into the water while doing a survey of the vessel.

[Gizmokid2005]

I see. It's good that it wasn't any worse...shame on that officer

[Mathster]

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/07/27/c...mazdas-aboard/

Mazda's, not nissans...

[Gizmokid2005]

Well...in any case foreign...

[Mathster]

65% of my Frontier and Xterra were made in the USA.

[Gizmokid2005]

Right...but if they were being shipped obviously they weren't made here huh?

[Mathster]

Nissan Frontiers and Xterras are shipped to AK.
most things are shipped to Alaska since its easier.

[acruxksa]

Nissan Frontiers and Xterras are shipped to AK.
most things are shipped to Alaska since its easier.

Actually the great circle route (shortest distance between two points on a sphere) from the far east to the west coast of the united states takes most vessels awfully close to the Aleutian Chain. In some cases when the destination is Seattle, Vancouver or Portland they technically go through the Aleutian Islands at a place called Unimak Pass. This is quite a busy shipping lane and can see 40 or 50 large cargo ships a day pass through the area.
In the case of the cougar ace, it was enroute from somewhere in asia to the west coast and happened to be about 250nm south of Adak, AK when the incident occurred. Dutch Harbor is the nearest port with salvage capabilities so the ship was towed there.

All the cars and trucks that are shipped to Alaska are shipped via Horizon Lines container ships or TOTE (Totem Ocean Trailer Express) Ro/Ro to Anchorage (and in small quantities Kodiak, AK). Believe it or not, 10's of thousands of new/used cars cross the docks at the port of Anchorage annually. Many of them are Rental Cars that are shipped up for the summer and then shipped back south in the fall.