?Cougar Ace? evacuated to calmer waters

ôCougar Aceö evacuated to calmer waters    A salvage tug is towing the disabled car carrier 'Cougar Ace' to calmer waters in the Bering Sea where a salvage team will continue efforts to right the vessel, a U.S. Coast Guard official said.
   Salvage experts from Titan Maritime on Thursday successfully lifted a third pump on board to pump water from the number nine cargo deck to a starboard ballast tank. The pumping operation is designed to reduce the list and provide the vessel more stability. Water has slowly seeped into the cargo deck from the cargo door ramp, but poses no threat to the vessel’s safety and stability, according to a joint statement by the Coast Guard, vessel operator Mitsui O.S.K. Line and Alaska officials.
   The Cougar Ace was headed to Vancouver, British Columbia, and other West Coast ports from Tokyo with a shipment of 4,813 mostly Mazda vehicles when it listed to its port side July 25 while undergoing a ballast adjustment about 230 miles south of the Aleutian Islands.
   A tug from Crowley Maritime, which also owns Titan, is towing the 'Cougar Ace' at about four knots per hour to a location about 50 miles at sea north of the deep sea port of Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, Coast Guard Petty Officer Sara Francis said. The new location is expected to provide salvors a better chance to work on the vessel because swells have less room to build in the Bering Sea, which is flanked on the south by the Aleutian Island chain. Swells were bigger in the unprotected North Pacific and forced salvors to abandon their efforts on Wednesday. The extreme angle of the ship combined with wave action makes it difficult for crews to work on board. Seas are at four feet with swells to six feet.
   Crowley’s tug towed the 'Cougar Ace' through the Samalga Pass south of Umnak Island last night on the way to the new work site, Francis said. The site is also closer to Dutch Harbor, which will be used as a base and to receive airlifted supplies.
   Titan has brought in a new naval architect to replace the man killed Monday in a fall on the 'Cougar Ace' as well as an additional team of salvage experts, according to a statement from the joint operations task force.
   A second large tug is heading from Washington to join the salvage effort.