THE blaze-hit American car carrier stationed in the Solent is on the move this afternoon.

The huge car transporter Courage has been stranded in waters off Southampton for nine days following a fire onboard.

This afternoon it has been moved to a neighbouring berth to make way for an arriving cruise ship.

It comes as repair work and investigations into the fire continue onboard.

The blaze started shortly before 10pm on Tuesday last week [June 2] when the US-registered vessel was 40 miles off the Essex coast.

It was described as ‘severe’ and is understood to have spread across four decks.

Daily Echo: Damage is clearly visable on the ship's side.

Its crew was able to use a special in-built CO2 flooding system to suppress the flames.

Yesterday engineers completed venting of the poisonous CO2 gasses from the hold.

A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said: “The vessel will now be moved to a nearby berth today to facilitate port berth management.

"There are further plans for joint Port State and Flag State inspections to be conducted to establish damage extent, and formal Fire Investigation to be conducted by the Flag State.”

Courage is owned by American Roll-On Roll-Off Carriers (ARC) who confirmed the ship’s crew of 24 were all unharmed.

The vessel weighs 52,000 tonnes and had been carrying a mix of new and used commercial vehicles and some vehicles and furniture belonging to US military personnel.