Sunday 23rd July 2006

The 654-foot Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace, a cargo ship carrying 4,813 cars from Japan to Canada, began tilting to its port side late at night hundreds of miles off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. 23 crew members were rescued the next day. The ship was owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and listed on its side for several weeks before being righted. 4,703 of the cars were new Mazda’s valued at about $100 million. After a year of planning Mazda scheduled all the cars for complete reduction to scrap in Portland, Oregon, Canada.