NEW YORK — At least two people were killed and about 20 injured when a Mexican Navy training ship on a global goodwill tour struck the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York Saturday night, officials said. There were 277 people on the sailing ship, called the Cuauhtémoc, at the time of the incident and everyone is believed to be accounted for, officials said Saturday. Dramatic video shows the Cuauhtémoc’s masts hitting the underside of the bridge and breaking as the vessel passes underneath, with pieces falling down toward the deck.
The incident occurred around 8:20 p.m. local time as the ship was departing from New York’s Pier 17, where it had been docked at the South Street Seaport Museum for five days of public viewing. The ship’s masts – bedecked in lights – struck the bridge, breaking on impact and sending debris falling onto the vessel’s deck. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the ship lost power. City officials earlier said “mechanical issues” may have caused the incident, but cautioned all information so far is preliminary. An investigation is ongoing.
Comment: Seems the ship lost power and drifted aft end first into the bridge. I assume the plan was to motor to the center of the river and pass under a taller section of the Brooklyn Bridge bow first. Between this and the ramming of the bridge in Baltimore, the lesson learned should be all ships entering or leaving a port should have a tug escort.
In other news, it was announced this afternoon that Biden has advanced prostate cancer and that it wasn’t discovered until last Friday. Why he didn’t have PSA tests as part of his annual physicals is beyond me. It should be a no brainer. I know what he’s in for. I wish him well.
TTG
Sal Mercogliano (YT “What’s Going on With Shipping”) has good analysis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIlRiauatEo
Ship was intending to back away from the dock, then power forwards and go South – away from the bridge. Doesn’t look like the ship lost power; looks more like it got stuck in reverse and steamed backwards (“aftwards”?) under the bridge.
Lotsa factors:
– they parked nose-in, because ships look better from the front (that forced them to back out)
– Tidal current at 8:00 PM was NorthEast, toward the bridge, and wind was pushing them the same direction. Prolly should have left dock with tide going out, not in.
– They had a ‘tug escort’, but it was pushing on the [starboard] side, not pulling (no ropes), and the ship got away from the tug.
– in some of the vid (including some from the NBC link in OP) you can see a ‘wake’ spreading out from the bow, and the ship is actually making a ‘stern wave’ – as if it was moving backwards under power. That’s why Sal thinks it got ‘stuck in reverse’.
(Note: Plz pardon my ignorance of Nautical lingo!)
elkern,
Thanks for the video link. I had a feeling Sal Mercogliano would have a good explanation. I saw a tweet last night in which he said the ship was under power in reverse rather than losing power as the Mayor of NYC said. Seems like going against the wind and tidal current was not a good idea, although I’ve usually seen ships like this coming into and out of Alexandria at night. I guess the schedule overruled the conditions.