The car carrier Morning Midas was on a voyage from China to Mexico when it caught fire on Tuesday in the mid-Pacific, some 300 miles southwest of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The ship was carrying 3,048 vehicles, including over 700 fully electric or hybrid electric vehicles.
“Smoke was initially seen emanating from a deck carrying electric vehicles,” reported a spokesperson for Zodiac Maritime, the manager of the Liberian-flagged car carrier. “The crew immediately initiated emergency firefighting procedures using the vessel’s onboard fire suppression systems. However, despite their efforts, the situation could not be brought under control.”
The fire’s intensity ultimately forced all 22 crew members to abandon ship. In consultation with the United States Coast Guard, the crew disembarked the vessel using its lifeboat. The Coast Guard reports that three merchant ships were directed to the scene and that the containership Cosco Hellas rescued the crew. They are all reported to be in good condition.
A spokeswoman for the Coast Guard said that it was allowing the fire to burn out and watching from a safe distance because of the risk that lithium-ion batteries in the cars could explode.
Last June, we posted about the arrest of 
Lighthouse keepers had more to worry about than simply storms and terrible conditions. In the 19th century, lighthouse keepers had a high frequency of madness and suicide. Many assumed that they went mad from solitude and the demands of the job. It turns out it was something simpler and more sinister. An updated repost.
On Saturday evening, shortly after the Mexican Navy sail training ship ARM Cuauhtémoc departed New York City’s South Street Seaport, Pier 17, on the East River, something went terribly wrong. The roughly 300′ long, steel-hulled, three-masted bark reportedly suffered some sort of mechanical failure and traveled, stern first, into the nearby Brooklyn Bridge.
General Order 99
On June 21, 1898, 
A Facebook video by my friend 
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An updated repost of an odd bit of history.
Given 