- NPR is reporting that a cargo ship filled with newly built vehicles, which had famously capsized in waters off Georgia last fall, will now be dismantled and carted away by barges.
- The Golden Ray, 656 feet long, had 4200 new cars on board and was headed from the Port of Brunswick to Baltimore.
- Why it capsized is still unknown.
It’s not quite The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, but it certainly captured the public’s interest when the massive Golden Ray cargo ship capsized off Brunswick, Georgia, last September.
We told you last fall about the still mysterious incident in which the ship, 656 feet long and carrying 4200 newly built vehicles on board, caught on fire, then tipped on its side and capsized. Four crew members of the 24 on board had been initially reported missing, but all eventually were located and made it to safety.
U.S. Coast Guard
As we reported then, the vessel belongs to Hyundai Glovis, but a Hyundai spokesperson told C/D that none of the cars on board were Hyundais. The Korea Herald said the vehicles were headed to the Middle East for export and that some were Kia Motors cars while others were from “other global carmakers.”
The tipped-over Golden Ray still sits in the waters off Georgia all these months later.
Now NPR is reporting that the ship will soon be chopped up so it can be removed from the waters, in a project coordinated by the U.S. Coast Guard. It will be cut into eight parts with the aid of a huge chain, and the parts will be lifted out of the water and removed on a barge, the news organization said.
Yes, the 4200 vehicles are still in there.