The Cougar Ace suffered a ballast tank pump failure when she was dumping her origin ballast water and filling — or, I suppose, trying to fill — her ballast tanks with local water, as required before entering American waters to prevent the accidental importation of invasive marine species. When the tank emptied but didn’t fill, over she went.

With the propellor out of the water she was adrift and taking on water, and despite being filled with brand-new Mazdas, was about to be written off by her owners until they and the US Coast Guard realized she’d break up on the Alaskan coast.

So 55,000 tons of flooded floating steel had to be righted, and Wired carries the story of the men who saved the Cougar Ace.

[via Metafilter]