A massive Mexican navy tall ship on a goodwill visit to New York slammed into the Brooklyn Bridge late Saturday — toppling its huge masts in a horrifying scene that left two dead and 17 injured, including two critically, according to fire officials and sources.
The majestic Cuauhtémoc — which has a crew of 277, mostly cadets — apparently lost power as it was sailing out of New York on its way to Iceland and the current carried it into the road deck of the bridge around 8:30 p.m., according to Mayor Eric Adams and footage of the crash.
The collision sheared off the ship’s 147-foot masts – with alarming footage capturing numerous crew members dangling for their lives from the sails and booms after the boat hit the bridge, which has a max clearance of 135 feet.
It might just be a little too early for this headline from Driscoll at Insty, KAMIKAZE MEXICAN NAVY SHIP ATTACKS BROOKLYN BRIDGE! 23 injured after Mexican navy tall ship slams into Brooklyn Bridge in horrifying scene. Have a little respect for the sailors. Notice the death and injury toll is different, as might be expected early on.In an absolutely stunning modern metaphor a ship blaring Mexican music and flying a massive Mexican flag just got destroyed by the Brooklyn bridge.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 18, 2025
Can’t make it uppic.twitter.com/AUJy0q3oFB
Unlike the devastating strike on the Key Bridge in Baltimore Harbor by the container ship Dali, the Brooklyn Bridge sees to have suffered only minor damage. Still, the cause of the accident appears to be the same, loss of engine power while navigating close spaces in a harbor while leaving port. Ships should be in top operating condition when leaving port, and big ones should be accompanied, if not towed by tug boats until safely away.
The ship clearly hits the bridge stern first, which I assume means it was driven into the bridge by strong tidal currents in the East River after it lost power. Why no tug boats?
There is a tug boat there, just not engaged with the vessel. Close is not good enough if the ship loses power like that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, tug was out of position for in incoming tide and a close hazard like the bridge. The Skipper on the ship bears some blame. Picking a time like that to depart instead of slack tide or falling tide. I also did not hear any horns or sirens sounded before impact. That's a fail. Not sure what if anything was communicated over the radio to the tug, but there was probably no time anyway. Skipper was probably focused on talking to the engine room, but someone on that bridge should have sounded the horn. The outcome may not have been any different, but it is a minimum expectation when loss of control has occurred and a collision is imminent. If you watch the video of the crowd that was on land beneath the bridge, they stupidly did not flee until after impact as they did not recognize the danger.
DeleteThe ship was traveling stern first, you see the tailboard name in this video, and another video shows the bow pointing the other direction. This was a colossal screwup by somebody.
ReplyDeleteThey were likely moored alongside for the port visit downstream (East River) from the bridge. In all likelyhood they were assisted in coming about and facing the ship''s head downstream by the tugs when they arrived. The procedure for departure is to cast of and fall back from pierside and start making headway under auxilliary power (engine) downstream away from the bridge and out to sea with the assistance of the tug. What clearly went wrong was the loss of power or stuck in reverse. Since this is a tidal river, the incoming tide is driving the current and the powerless ship upstream and into the bridge.
DeleteWhat needed to happen to avoid this was to anticipate such a contingency and to plan for it. The options to do that were to leave when the tide was falling instead of rising, to have no personnel aloft while in proximity to the bridge, and to have the tugs stationed so as to keep the ship from being carried away if power failed. None of that was planned for and there was only a minute or so to react once it was clear the ship had lost steerage, much too late unfortunately.
A ship of that size and tonnage probably should have had 2 harbor tugs, but that costs more money. It is a problem of the modern world that the convenience of auxiliary propulsion in a sailing ship can lead to overconfidence in planning and leads to dangerous evolutions that the clipper captains 150 years ago would not have attempted. Steam tugs were available in 1880's and clipper ships of this size were common in New York Harbor. They would not have had aux power though and I'm sure they would not have tried to depart on an incoming tide.