“Out of the darkness, a rumble grows. The water begins to vibrate. Suddenly, the prow of a massive ship splits the fog. Its steel hull rises seven stories above the water and stretches two football fields back into the night. A 15,683-horsepower engine roars through the holds, pushing 55,328 tons of steel. Crisp white capital letters — COUGAR ACE — spell the ship’s name above the ocean froth. A deep-sea car transport, its 14 decks are packed with 4,703 new Mazdas bound for North America. Estimated cargo value: $103 million.

On the bridge and belowdecks, the captain and crew begin the intricate process of releasing water from the ship’s ballast tanks in preparation for entry into US territorial waters. They took on the water in Japan to keep the ship steady, but US rules require that it be dumped here to prevent contaminating American marine environments. It’s a tricky procedure. To maintain stability and equilibrium, the ballast tanks need to be drained of foreign water and simultaneously refilled with local water. The bridge gives the go-ahead to commence the operation, and a ship engineer uses a hydraulic-powered system to open the starboard tank valves. Water gushes out one side of the ship and pours into the ocean. It’s July 23, 2006.”

As you guess, it does not go well.

A special salvage crew is called … great story in WIRED, “High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace.”

Right now, it’s just a nice drama – Hollywood would probably have to add some terrorism or mutant virus strain to add just a little to it but it’s nearly ready to go …

George Clooney grabbed our first suggestion (should we sue that he can read also 🙂 ), #2 is still available and of course #3 has actually been done as a horrible movie already.