The freighter "Felicity Ace" with around 4000 German cars on board is no longer on fire after a good week.
Five salvage experts went on Thursday for the first time on the ship drifting on the Atlantic south of the Azores, which belongs to Portugal, the port commander of the island of Faial, João Mendes Cabeças, was quoted as saying by the Lusa news agency in the evening.
The employees of a Dutch company had carried out work to stabilize the freighter and found "that there were no more flames at all".
There is also “no sign of the fire flaring up again”.
"The ship is now already tied to a tug so it doesn't continue to drift without a leader," said Mendes Cabeças.
The 200 meter long ship was on its way from Emden to Davisville in the US state of Rhode Island when the fire broke out on Wednesday last week for reasons that are still unknown.
The 22 crew members were brought to safety by the Portuguese Air Force on the same day.
The freighter then drifted in the Atlantic for a week.
According to official information, he covered a long distance.
On Thursday, the ship was about 440 kilometers southwest of Faial.
When the fire broke out it was about 170 miles to the north.
Upon request, Volkswagen had confirmed that the ship was transporting new cars from the VW Group.
A spokesman did not want to confirm reports that there were about 1100 Porsches, some Bentleys and Lamborghinis and many Audis.