Photo: Courtesy of US Coast Guard

Wired’s Joshua Davis has an awesome article that beyond all reasonable recognition is one of the best articles I have ever read on the Internets.  The article describes the trials and triumphs of a group of high sea salvagers, or modern day legalized pirates, try to save the Cougar Ace - a downed car carrier ship near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.  The ship was carrying 4,703 Mazdas when it’s ballasting system malfunctioned and threw the ship to tilt at around 60 degrees in one direction.

The tale that follows is one that cannot be forgotten.  It seems something so unbelievable really, something that one might write up for a Hollywood movie.  The article is long, but it should be read from top to bottom.  Not only does one learn about the value of money in relation to human life (and vice versa), but also how a few moments in history could save the life of an individual.  How that singular moment, if that wife would have let her husband go on assignment instead of trodding him around her in-laws… maybe there would be one more naval architect in the world, and by all regards one of the best. And many other glimpses into the depository that is life.

The best article on the internet [period]