Posted by Agent Skelly
That was the MV Cougar Ace which was originally taking Mazdas to Vancouver, BC and Tacoma, WA. What happened was that the ship got flipped over by a giant wave and some of the cars broke out of their straps and started smashing other cars. It wasn't until last year that the ship was recovered and pulled into the Port of Portland where Mazda determined that none of the cars could be recovered and they went ahead and had them all crushed. Mazda last I saw had a list of VINs from this ship.
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Interesting. I was going to say this was the sinking of the Vanlene off the West Coast of Vancouver Island in 1972. That freighter was carrying Dodge Colts, They brought in helicopters to pull the cars off before it sank.
We boarded the small remaining part of the ship that was above water about a year after it grounded. I would have been 15, my brother 13. Very creepy, looking down those flooded tipped hallways. There was not much above the water to explore. A year or so later it totally sunk.
The West Coast of Vancouver Island is called the Graveyard of the Pacific for a reason.
A quick search reveals a bad link, but some photos:
http://www.priaout...ing-book-82-83.pdf 14, 1972, when a giant freighter, the Vanlene,
ran aground near Austin Island. The ship was
carrying 300 Dodge Colt automobiles en
route to Vancouver from Japan.
The crew members (from Honk Kong) all
survived, but they were not able to save the
ship. They sent out a Mayday call erroneously
reporting they were off the coast of
Washington state. Search-and-rescue teams
took a long time to find the Vanlene due to
the wildly inaccurate position report. The
vessel was finally located, but despite the
involvement of several rescue vessels the
Vanlene could not be saved. Her captain had
apparently lost his way, and investigators
found that all navigation instruments on the
ageing vessel were non-functioning. The
captain had navigated across the Pacific with
just an ordinary compass!
Sea arch on Effingham Island. Copyright Parks Canada
The wreck of the Vanlene caused a major oil spill and the federal government