Did anyone else lose their car aboard the Tropicana?
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 497
Likes: 1
Did anyone else lose their car aboard the Tropicana?
I cannot BELIEVE this... I'm talking to the dealer now about another production slot.
£62m cargo 'lost' as ship sinks
An inquiry has been launched into the sinking
Nearly 2,000 new luxury cars on board a carrier ship which sank in the English Channel are almost certainly write-offs, salvage experts have said.
The multi-million pound cargo of vehicles, including cars from Mercedes-Benz and BMW, is lying on the seabed inside the sunken Norwegian carrier ship the HUAL Tropicana.
The 55,000-ton vessel sank after colliding with a 20,000-ton container vessel in the early hours of Thursday.
A salvage company is sending a ship to the area with divers on board to try to find a way of removing the wreck - lying in about 25m of water.
The crew members were taken to hospital in France
HM Coastguard Lee Drew said: "The wreck must really go as soon as possible, because the Dover Straits is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world - and this is the actual crossroads where ships come from and to the European ports."
All 24 crew members survived the incident, which happened off Le Havre, France.
The Tropicana had been travelling from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Le Havre with its cargo of 2,862 cars and 77 containers when it hit the container ship the Kariba.
The value of the cargo was put at £62m, though the cars would have fetched double that at retail prices, motor industry experts say.
The car carrier also had about 2,000 tons of oil on board, according to Lloyd's Casualty Reporting Service.
An anti-pollution plan was drawn up by the French authorities managing the incident, but a French naval officials said there was no sign of any leakage.
The Tropicana crew abandoned ship and took to lifeboats after the collision at 0130 GMT on Thursday.
The captain and two officers were rescued by the Kariba while the rest of the mostly Filipino crew were picked up by a tug boat and have been taken to hospital in the French port Dunkirk.
The Kariba, registered in the Bahamas, was severely damaged but was able to make its own way to the Belgian port of Antwerp.
Visit the BBC website for the full text of this article.
£62m cargo 'lost' as ship sinks
An inquiry has been launched into the sinking
Nearly 2,000 new luxury cars on board a carrier ship which sank in the English Channel are almost certainly write-offs, salvage experts have said.
The multi-million pound cargo of vehicles, including cars from Mercedes-Benz and BMW, is lying on the seabed inside the sunken Norwegian carrier ship the HUAL Tropicana.
The 55,000-ton vessel sank after colliding with a 20,000-ton container vessel in the early hours of Thursday.
A salvage company is sending a ship to the area with divers on board to try to find a way of removing the wreck - lying in about 25m of water.
The crew members were taken to hospital in France
HM Coastguard Lee Drew said: "The wreck must really go as soon as possible, because the Dover Straits is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world - and this is the actual crossroads where ships come from and to the European ports."
All 24 crew members survived the incident, which happened off Le Havre, France.
The Tropicana had been travelling from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Le Havre with its cargo of 2,862 cars and 77 containers when it hit the container ship the Kariba.
The value of the cargo was put at £62m, though the cars would have fetched double that at retail prices, motor industry experts say.
The car carrier also had about 2,000 tons of oil on board, according to Lloyd's Casualty Reporting Service.
An anti-pollution plan was drawn up by the French authorities managing the incident, but a French naval officials said there was no sign of any leakage.
The Tropicana crew abandoned ship and took to lifeboats after the collision at 0130 GMT on Thursday.
The captain and two officers were rescued by the Kariba while the rest of the mostly Filipino crew were picked up by a tug boat and have been taken to hospital in the French port Dunkirk.
The Kariba, registered in the Bahamas, was severely damaged but was able to make its own way to the Belgian port of Antwerp.
Visit the BBC website for the full text of this article.
Last edited by kaneman; Jun 19, 2003 at 09:55 AM.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 5,583
Likes: 212
From: Washington D.C.
2024 GLE63s / 2016 GLE63s (traded) / 2016 E63s / 2002 E55
KANEMAN, A LITTLE LATE FOR APRIL FOOLS!
The boat was the Minnow! The Crew - The Skipper and Gilligan!
That is old news. That boat sunk Dec 14, 2002 and there were no Mercedes aboard especially not any E55's for US delivery.
"Of the 2862 vehicles aboard the vessel, 2014 were Volvos, including 358 XC90s, 637 S60s, 173 V70s, 314 XC70s, 274 S80s, 119 S40s, 46 V40s, 67 C70s and the remainder in miscellaneous custom-er-owned Volvos. Saab lost more than 500 cars, mostly 9-3s, while BMW reported losing 335 3, 5 and 7 Series models."
That is old news. That boat sunk Dec 14, 2002 and there were no Mercedes aboard especially not any E55's for US delivery.
"Of the 2862 vehicles aboard the vessel, 2014 were Volvos, including 358 XC90s, 637 S60s, 173 V70s, 314 XC70s, 274 S80s, 119 S40s, 46 V40s, 67 C70s and the remainder in miscellaneous custom-er-owned Volvos. Saab lost more than 500 cars, mostly 9-3s, while BMW reported losing 335 3, 5 and 7 Series models."
Last edited by E55 KEV; Jun 19, 2003 at 10:41 AM.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 497
Likes: 1
The boat that sunk was the Wallenius Tricolor... MY CAR is aboard the Tropicana heading for Jacksonville NOW! So I REALLY hope I didn't just jinx myself. And yes, that story is about the tricolor
So I REALLY hope I didn't just jinx myself. And yes, that story is about the tricolor
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,351
Likes: 22
From: Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Porcelain Bus
I think this was a planned accident by BMW to collect some insurance money on some new 7 series vehicles before they were sold and later had to be repurchased by BMW.
