The car carrier Morning Midas, adrift off the coast of Alaska, is still burning, with the first salvage tug arriving at the scene on Monday, as reported by Splash.
The tug Gretchen Dunlap arrived Monday afternoon with salvage personnel and has begun a full assessment of the conditions on scene. An additional two vessels are scheduled to arrive in approximately six days, while the second should arrive in around 12 days.
The fire on the Zodiac Maritime-managed car carrier with 3,048 vehicles aboard, including over 700 fully electric or hybrid electric vehicles, started a week ago, during the vessel’s voyage from Mexico to Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico. The vessel is chartered to China’s SAIC Anji Logistics. It is located some 355 km south of Adak.
The 22-person crew abandoned ship and were rescued by the 2006-built, 9,469 teu containership Cosco Hellas.
The car carrier is carrying around 350 tonnes of gas fuel and 1,530 tonnes of very low-sulphur fuel oil.
A Coast Guard C-130J Super Hercules aircraft conducted an overflight of the car carrier on Sunday and observed no signs of pollution. The vessel’s watertight integrity remains intact. However, images from the overflight show that the fire has caused considerable damage to the entire vessel.
The Coast Guard, Zodiac Maritime, and the salvage company Resolve Marine are developing comprehensive salvage and safety plans.
The vessel’s position and condition are being tracked through regular overflights, and drift analysis is conducted using information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration.
As of 7 am local time on Monday, the Morning Midas was reported to be drifting northeast at approximately 2.9 kmph.
#UPDATE 3: Vessel approx. 220 mi south of Adak, drifting NE at 1.8 mph. Tug Gretchen Dunlap arrived on scene today & began assessments. 2 additional vessels scheduled to arrive within 2 weeks. No signs of pollution.
📸 From yesterday
More: https://t.co/Z7YAe9JsK1 https://t.co/hXJIDds6mU pic.twitter.com/eh6vw1Iy5V— USCGAlaska (@USCGAlaska) June 10, 2025
The following by the late Bob Watson is his comment on modern ships it is widely sung at Shanty events, I sand it off Cape Horn in 1991 from the deck of Soren Larsen.
Shantyman (Bob Watson)
Now modern ships carry mighty funny gear,
REF: And away, get away, you shantyman.
Ain’t seen a halyard in many’s a year,
REF: An’ they got no use for a shantyman.
Slick new fittings are all your style,
REF: And away, get away, you shantyman.
All very clever, but it just ain’t right;
CH: An’ they got no use for a shantyman.
Shantyman, oh, shantyman,
Who’s got a berth for a shantyman?
Sing you a song of a world gone wrong,
When they got no use for a shantyman.
Levers to jerk and buttons to press
And real live sailors they need them less;
Pushing on the buttons and hauling on the levers
And they got no use for horny-handed heavers.
The cargo is stored in a polythene pack,
Raised and lowered by a dry bollocks jack;
Floating computer dressed like a ship,
Skippered and crewed by a microchip.
Soon they’ll be sailing by remote control,
An’ that’ll be pleasing to the owners’ souls;
They’ll send their ships from dock to dock,
All sat upon their arses in an office block.
New-fangled gear’s no use to you
When you’re off Cape Horn with your fuses blew;
Then’s the time for to curse the day
You sent your shanty crew away.
A sailor’s life it once was hard,
Laid out aloft on a tops’l yard;
Now it don’t matter if the winds blow high;
You can take force ten with your feet still dry.
Old-time ways are forgotten and gone,
For no-one listens to a shantyman’s song.
Things no longer as they used to be;
It’s the knacker’s yard for the likes of me.
Listen at night and you might hear
A ghostly sound on the quiet air;
Is it a ghost from the distant past?
Or just a breeze in the radar mast?
Bob has this to say about his song:
“Somewhere about 1983 I heard Jim Lloyd on the BBC (Folk on Two) interviewing
The Spinners, one of whom remarked that there was a demand for new sea songs written in the style of the old. I remember thinking; “What on earth would one write new sea songs about?” It took a year before any constructive ideas were formed and then suddenly a load of songs came pouring out of me. Amongst them was The Shantyman, although I don’t know exactly what the inspiration behind it was. Most of my songs take a long time from first draft to finished version, sometimes years, but this song progressed faster because of the interest shown by Tony O’Neil when he saw a rough draft. Tony liked the song, but not all the verses, so I went home and rewrote some of them. This led to the song making its debut at Bracknell Folk Festival in 1984, sung by Tony, and its live recording is a treasured possession. From that first performance other people heard it and have taken to singing it…”
Text and notes are quoted from The Shanty Crew’s 1989 recording, Stand To Yer
Ground (PROP 1885A)
MD
Oct 00
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!