Joshua Davis in Wired Magazine recounts this incredible saga, High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace.
The drama inherent in trying to save a ship that has nearly capsized in the North Pacific is gripping, mostly because of the exotic cast of characters that populate it. From Captain Rich Habib to a bevy of wild salvage divers and naval architects, these guys are the stuff of a Hollywood movie.
The story itself is a screenplay. A deep-sea car transport, its 14 decks packed with 4,703 new Mazdas at an estimated cargo value of $103 million lays on its side after a malfunction while changing ballast water. The only way to right it is to create a digital model and calculate an intricate pumping system. The only way to accomplish it isn’t pretty.
The job is daunting: Board the Cougar Ace with the team and build an on-the-fly digital replica of the ship. The car carrier has 33 tanks containing fuel, freshwater, and ballast. The amount of fluid in each tank affects the way the ship moves at sea, as does the weight and placement of the cargo. It’s a complex system when the ship is upright and undamaged. When the cargo holds take on seawater or the ship rolls off-center — both of which have occurred — the vessel becomes an intricate, floating puzzle.
Davis handles the telling of this fantastical tale brilliantly. As he introduces each character as they are summoned to the project—from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Port of Spain, Trinidad—he back-stories just enough to help us understand the dangers and rewards. And in Captain Rich Habib, he has a protagonist that is sort of a seafaring Red Adair, square-jawed and steely-eyed through risk and tragedy.
The story has everything that I love: drama, technology, character and story. Someone needs to make a film of this. It’s the best thing I’ve read in a long, long time. Follow the link to the story after the excerpt.
Deep within the ship, the men dangle on ropes inside an angled staircase and peer through a doorway into the number-nine cargo deck. Their lights partially illuminate hundreds of cars tilted on their side, sloping down into the darkness. Each is cinched to the deck by four white nylon straps. Periodically a large swell rolls the ship, straining the straps. A chorus of creaks echoes through the hold. Then, as the ship rolls back, the hold falls silent. It’s a cold, claustrophobic nightmare slicked with trickling engine oil and transmission fluid. Trepte lowers a rope and eases into the darkness.
High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace by Joshua Davis in Wired Magazine.